Kiss with a Fist
by nottonyharrison
Summary: She somehow manages to talk Alec into moving in with her. As the situation with the public and the local beurocrats spirals out of control, will Max and Alec be able to keep their heads in the game?
1. Prologue

Hi Guys, I've been out of the loop for a while, but I was re-watching DA a while back, and it inspired me to get back into the community. It's been a while since I have written a fic so hopefully this goes okay. I have the entire plotline mapped out, so it is going somewhere. Somewhere entirely different from where it starts, I might add. Thanks to Florence and the Machine for the title. I think it's fitting.

**Title:** Kiss With a Fist

**Author:** Kim

**Blurb:** After the events of Freak Nation, Max is afraid she gave Logan the wrong idea with the whole hand holding incident. She somehow manages to talk Alec into moving in with her to keep up appearances, much to the amusement of the rest of Terminal City. As the situation with the public and the local beurocrats spirals out of control, will Max and Alec be able to keep their heads in the game?

**Disclaimer:** I do not assume to own the rights to Dark Angel. If I did, I would have not ended on a cliffhanger. I would not have greenlit those hideous books, and there would have been far more shirtless Alec on screen. Sigh, I disclaim.

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"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Well it's not a bad one"

"I beg to differ, Max. We spend more time at each others throats than we do with our tongues down them."

"Look, are you going to help me out or not?" Max's hands were on her hips, feet slightly apart in that bitchy indignant pose she seemed to like oh so much.

"_Fine_, but no violence if my foot accidentally strays to the wrong side of the bed."

"What if your hand ends up on my boob?"

"I give you permission to punch. Torso only, and absolutely _no_ nipple gripple."

"Deal. Now help me make the goddamn bed."

It was a double bed. Not a queen or king but a double. A small, cramped sleep on your back in the coffin position kind of double bed. Alec huffed and pulled the sheet set out of the backpack he had placed next to his feet.

"How exactly did you manage to procure seven hundred thread count Egyptian cotton sheets in this economy?"

"Logan wasn't going back to ye olde Fogle Towers, so I thought 'why not?' No sense in letting luxury go to waste."

Max's eyebrows raised slightly and a disapproving look came across her face. Alec just knew she was irked he hadn't bothered to grab anything Logan may have needed from his old apartment, but there was only so much one could fit in a small backpack. Besides, the linen closet was the only area in the apartment not riddled with bullet holes.

"Hey, they're for your benefit as well as mine!"

"They're king size. I'm gonna get bunches under my ass."

"Trust me, I can do fantastic hospital corners on a fitted sheet. Just be glad you're not stuck with standard issue Manticore sandpaper."

"_fine,_ you have just volunteered for bedmaker duty."

"Well then you get bathroom duty."

"You get cooking duty."

"You get dishes duty."

There was a growl emitted from Max at the mention of doing the dishes.

"I am _not_ doing the dishes."

"why not? I'm a better cook than you anyway!"

"You are _not_, what on earth gave you that idea"

"I went undercover as a chef at some senator's mansion once. _Your_ cooking knowledge extends to instant noodles and a roast chicken _without_ the trimmings." It was his turn to assume the huffy hand on hip stance.

"Dishes it is then," Max sighed. At least she wasn't going to be stuck with stew every night.

She wandered into the next room to inspect the bathroom, and immediately wished that she had disputed bathroom duty instead. There wasn't a spot in the entire room not covered with mold spores and the toilet was so corroded in the U bend it looked like no one had flushed the last time it was used.

"Just wonderful"

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"Max, how long do you think we're going to be stuck here?" A lollipop stick was poking out of the corner of his mouth. He looked a little like a petulant child.

"In Terminal City, or living together in this apartment?" Max glanced up, an exasperated look on her face.

"Both, I guess."

"God knows how long we're going to be stuck in TC, Alec."

"What about being stuck with your bitchy ass? Should we 'break up' in a couple of weeks, or let everyone keep thinking we're doing the nasty every night?"

"There's not enough apartments in TC as it is, we're better off to just keep pretending."

"You are so mean."

Max poked her tongue out at him.

"Gee Max, real mature."

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Eleven pm saw to transgenics on a beat up old couch nursing two beers. One would assume that being genetically engineered to go days without sleep, they would be ready for a quick round of breaking and entering. Perhaps a little sneak and creep through the streets of Seattle looking for some bad guy to rip off.

You could imagine the lizard like transgenic's reaction when he found the aforementioned pair not just nursing their beers, but cradling the two empty bottles like they were their own offspring. They were sound asleep, Max's cheek resting on Alec's shoulder both mouths ajar slightly. Mole snickered quietly to himself as he took a photo, making sure to forward it to all the trannies in TC who had managed to procure cellphones. This one was going on the noticeboard.

"Rise and shine, sleepyheads. We've got work to do!"

The clanging of a ladle on a pot woke them with a start.

"Mole....."

"Yes, 494, now get your ass of the couch and into the shower."

Max was rubbing her cheek where Alec's shoulder had slammed into it when he awoke. She was too late, Alec was already in the bathroom. She growled, so much for hot water.

"You gonna go take a shower with lover boy?"

"He likes the water way too hot," It was as good an excuse as any.

Five minutes later and Alec was exiting the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist smirking at Max as she gave him the death glare on the way through the door. The kissy face he made almost tipped her over the edge.

Mole smirked, as much as his leathery face would allow

"Oblivious morons."


	2. You Hit Me Once

**A/N: **Quick update, just want to give you a bit more than the prologue. I'm looking for a beta, if anyone is interested. Read my profile if you want to know the requirements and PM me if you think you fit the bill.

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As usual, command was a flurry of activity. At one end of the room – if you could call it a room – was a large flat screen TV Dix had managed to salvage from one of the Medlabs. The screen was cracked, but it was still watchable. Currently a grim report on the state of the city's prisons was showing. Not very interesting viewing, but the hacked satellite connection was programmed to recognise keywords and automatically switch to the station.

Towards the center of the room was a collection of old desks and rickety benches and chairs. Computer parts littered the area and there were several odd looking freaks working frantically. There were a few systems they had managed to cobble together from various parts located on a main trestle table between the flat screen and the junkyard.

Max stomped into the room, and immediately headed for the far end of the room where the coffee pot was located. Pouring herself a large mug of brown sludge she turned to face Mole whom she assumed had followed her into the room. Instead, she found herself face to face with Alec's chest.

"Where's mine?" A disbelieving look was on his face.

"Get your own."

"Ouch, Maxie. You're sleeping on the couch tonight."

Max poked her tongue out at him for the second time in half an hour.

The other transgenics watched the exchange with amused looks on their faces. For two super geniuses they certainly were dense. Keeping up pretences of a relationship, while allowing small exchanges like this to show the true nature of their tentative friendship. Good thing Logan was so clueless when it came to transgenic relationships.

"Okay people, what have we got tonight?" Alec's voice rang out across the room just as Mole walked in, picking up his cigar from the ashtray by the door and re lighting it with a match.

"Cops are blaming the crappy prison system on trannies. Apparently they are using so many resources on keeping us in check that they don't have enough guards to keep the local encarcerated from killing each other. Sounds like a good thing if you ask me," A puff of smoke exited the corner of his mouth as he finished his sentence. Alec momentarily wondered if he had two windpipes before speaking.

"They seem to have conveniently forgotten we're all holed up here in TC."

"Any excuse to make us look bad, I guess," Max commented.

"You're going to think I'm mad, but maybe we should make a statement," Dix's head popped up from behind a computer screen he was currently trying to fix.

"Like the public's gonna believe us. We're just a bunch of boogeymen that show up in their kid's nightmares," the pessimistic voice of one of the older X5's – Book – piped up. Book was six foot five of brick shithouse. Obviously one of the less stealthy models, he got by on brute force and agression alone.

"No, Dix is right," Alec commented. Any excuse to shut Books big mouth was fine with him. "Max, they know your face now. We'll film a statement and get it to Logan to transmit. Even if no-one important believes it, it'll get the Eyes Only conspiracy lovers' tongues wagging." Alec sent a surreptitious smirk in the larger X5's direction. He might be smaller, but he'd _always_ be the higher rank. Book just didn't have a big enough brain. In fact, Alec would go as far to say they forgot to put a sprinkle of Einstein in his cocktail. After all, Einstein _had_ donated his brain to science. Perhaps they didn't have access to it when Book's test tube was inseminated. The thought made Alec's smirk turn into a full fledged grin and he turned to face Max, who most was most certainly _not_ sporting a grin.

"Why is it always me?" It was the exasperated look again.

"Perhaps because you're the one who smashed through a window at JP riding a hoverdrone? Just a thought," There was that amazing talking and smoking independently thing again. Alec made a mental note to ask Mole about that later.

"_Fine_, but just because I dealt with Clemente doesn't mean I want to be your official figurehead. The last thing I want is commemorative 'yes we can' mugs and t-shirts being made with my face on them."

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",,,,we are unaware of any Transgenic currently being pursued by the law enforcement of Seattle or the State of Washington. All Transgenics currently living within the limits of Terminal City are under strict orders not to leave the compound unless under orders or with the permission of the commanding officer of the city. Members of our population have no reason to leave Terminal City. Please do not believe reports that we are draining the resources of the law enforcement of the state. There are currently a grand total of fourteen guards stationed around the perimeter of Terminal city, all of which appear to have never handled a sidearm. Perhaps it is time for you to consider what your police force is actually doing on public time. Thank you for listening and please remember that Transgenics are not here to harm you, we were created to keep this country safe."

The red, white and blue of eyes only flashed up on the screen "This has been an Eyes Only streaming freedom video bulletin."

And just like that, it was over. Max had officially outed herself on statewide television. Original Cindy glanced at the mussed looking man to her right.

"Whaddaya think, Sketch. Max ever gonna be able to show her face in here again?"

"Only on halloween." Sketcy pointed a finger at Cindy and drunkenly attempted to close one eye. He succeeded in half closing both.

"How do ya figure?" Cindy smirked. Even in grim circumstances Sketchy always managed to make light of a situation.

"Well, now that she's a public figure, it'll be like Hilary and Bill masks. Just this year everone will have Max masks. Ya know, pop culture."

"Ya know, fo' a fool you actually got a point there," Cindy laughed and took a sip of her beer.

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Max crawled into bed around nine. The daylight hours were definitely the time to sleep. Less going on, less chance of being interrupted. Today, however, was not one of those days.

"I thought I told you to sleep on the couch," Alec's teasing voice carried from the living room.

"You were already hogging it. I can't sleep with your stupid boob tube on." She snuggled under the covers and into the sheets. Although loathe to admit it, they were _fantastic_.

And then the moment was ruined.

"Couchie time," the bed dipped and Alec's hands were suddenly on her back, pushing her onto the floor.

"Come on, Alec. Stop being such a prick." She picked up a shoe off the floor and threw it at his head, then rolled over and started to push herself off the floor.

Alec plucked the shoe out of mid air and fired it right back at her, hitting her square in the butt. Max snatched the shoe from the floor and stomped off to the living room. Flopping down on the saggy, uncomfortable couch was a mistake. A rogue spring jabbed her right where the shoe had hit her.

Alec heard the yelp from the bedroom and smiled. That would teach her for having the last of the coffee.

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It must have been around an hour later when Alec got a case of the guilts. Clearly Max hadn't had the practice in sleeping anywhere and everywhere that he had. He could hear her tossing and turing, huffing and puffing even with the pillow wrapped around his ears. Eventually he gave up and shuffled over to where Max was curled up in the foetal position. Contrary to what he had assumed, she actually was asleep, albeit a restless one. The frown was still firmly in place and appeared to get even deeper if it were possible as he picked her up and carried her to bed.

".....go 'way," Alec couldn't tell if she was telling him, or the dream. He wasn't waiting around to find out and quickly deposited her on the bed before he bore the brunt of some kind of violent outburst. He pulled the covers back over them and settled back down to finally get some guilt free time in the land of nod.

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Max awoke to a hand curled around her mid section. She smiled wryly, noticing it was a good couple of inches away from her chest. Removing the hand from her stomach she extracted herself from the heavenly sheets and stood with a stretch. _They may not be necessary, but those sheets gave me the best sleep i've had in years_, she thought as she headed towards the bathroom. She flicked on the shower and removed her pyjamas as she waited for the water to heat up.

Only the water didn't heat up.

"_Damnit, Alec. How the hell can you use two days worth of hot water?_" She muttered to herself as she stepped into the freezing cold spray. Thank god it wasn't a hairwash day or there would have been hell to pay.

"Are you going to be long? I need to pee," came a whiney voice from the door.

"I'll be right out. The waters freezing, you moron. Did you get up already or something?"

"What? No! You're the one with shark DNA," Came the pissed off voice from the other side of the door. "Just hurry up, I really need to whizz!"

The shower shut off and Max emerged wrapped in a towel, a pile of clothes in her arms. "What would you have done if we were stuck somewhere without a bathroom? Couldn't you just _hold on_ without whining?"

"Come on, Maxie. You know whingeing's my specialty," he gave her a wink and slipped past her, slamming the door as soon as he was clear of the doorjamb.

"Asshole."

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This time they entered command together. The banter was yet to stop, though. Alec had discovered that their water was heated by some kind of pre-pulse fuel called LPG. Apparently you needed to buy it in a bottle, and the only reason their water had worked was because there was an old bottle still connected to the heating system in the apartment. Heavens knows how it had still worked, but there was no point in pondering the fact, because LPG no longer existed as a commodity in post pulse America.

Gone was Max's dream of running hot water. She couldn't even have bath night because the apartment didn't have a bath. Perhaps she could try to find an old clawfoot somewhere like the one she used to have at her old apartment. She could curtain off a corner of the living room for 'bath space'.

"....eh, Max?"

"What?"

"I was just mentioning how we're gonna need an apartment with hot water if you're gonna have a whole brood of my babies," Max gave Alec the death glare again.

"Our hot water is screwed," she clarified. "Alec says we need some kind of bottled gas you can't buy any more. Kinda like butane but you get it from gasoline."

"Oh, you mean LPG?" Piped up a younger tech mutant stationed at the scrapheap. His name was Chip and he had a penchant for circuit boards and chemistry. "You know, it's interesting you mention butane, because LPG usually contains either part propane, part butane, or a mix of both along with a re-"

"Thanks for the science lession squirt, but I think all Max want's to know is if you can make her some so she can go all girly on us." Mole sent a pointed look at Max, who looked a little sheepish at her need to go all 'girly'.

"I can't make it, but I know where there's an underground tank that hasn't been used for years," Chip replied. He grinned when he saw Max's grateful expression. "You're gonna need a lot of gas though, it's not in Washington."

Alec rubbed his hands together and looked pointedly at his female companion. "You up for a road trip?"


	3. I Hit You Back

**A/N:** Thank you to anyone who reviewed the prologue and first chapter. A big thanks to Amanda, who made the comment that it was like watching a new episode. That means I am achieving what I was setting out to. If anyone can guess where Cam, Kerr and Foreman got their names (yes, it is a reference to their specialties) you will get to name a new character in an upcoming chapter.

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Regardless of Alec's previous comment, it was decided that perhaps it wouldn't be to the Transgenic's advantage if their Commanding Officer and his second were out of town on a less than crucial mission. The job was eventually given to Book and a couple of X6's. The three of them were currently standing in a short row in front of him dressed in 'uniforms' for a fictional gas company called 'Montana Propane'.

Cam was a mechanically minded X6 female. She had volunteered for the job after finding out she would probably get to fix a gas valve that hadn't been in use for years, and possibly blow up an entire field in the process. It was also helpful that she could fix just about any engine on the planet, as the one in the late 1980's Ford Transit van they were using for the trip had definitely seen better days.

The other youngster was a stealth and recon unit named Kerr. He was not only excellent at sneaking up on humans, but even the odd transgenic had been on the receiving end of one of his practical jokes. His recon training had also put him in good stead for any observational task handed to him. He tended to put people on edge with his knack for reading human behavior.

Book had been included in the team because everyone else was sick of his man-bitching.

"Okay, team. Why is it imperative that we succeed in this mission?"

"Sir, so that you get some, sir," came the smartass reply from the two younger team members. Alec's face lit up in a grin, he knew that Kerr was aware of his leader's 'arrangement'. Couldn't get anything past that kid. He then glanced at Book.

"What about you, soldier?"

Book scowled, "To make your bitchy-ass SIC chill out a couple a degrees."

"Geez, Bookie. Looks like we'd better save one of those gas bottles for you, too huh?"

"Where do you want them, boss?" A large group had entered command laden with as many empty gas cylinders as they could scavenge, led by one of the Arctic units. After much searching, they had managed to find enough bottles to fill the back of the Transit. Makeshift racks had been created from steel poles to make sure the bottles were secure enough to stack to the roof of the van. It looked a little like a gigantic wine cabinet.

"Foreman's finished the back of the van, Head on out to the garage and start stacking," Alec replied. Foreman was the resident builder and carpenter. He had managed to make a huge number of offices and apartments habitable over the last month with just a small crew and minimal resources. He sometimes joked that he was created exactly for the situation they were currently in – rebuilding a makeshift Manticore.

"Okay, everone got their comms and cellphones?"

"Yes, Alec," came the exasperated reply from the small team.

"Okay, move out. Call us if you get yourselves into any shit." The group moved towards the back door, Cam and Kerr jauntily bouncing along, Book bringing up the rear. A sullen expression was still fixed firmly to his face and he didn't look unlike a gorilla, shoulders slouched, arms looking like they would start dragging along the ground any moment. Alec followed them to the door and watched Book climb into the drivers side, looking as if it were the most exhausting thing he had ever done. The last of the empty bottles were loaded into the back of the van and before he knew it, the Transit was heading off down the narrow alleyway behind the garage.

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"So how goes the team?"

"On their way to South Dakota as we speak."

"Is it weird that I feel a little guilty?" Alec laughed

"Max, we need this stuff for more than just your hot showers. Most of the cooking and heating equipment here is rigged up for this stuff. Nevermind that the rest of the country uses propane. Obviously the scientists here just thought they were onto a better thing," he patted Max on the shoulder.

Max stepped towards Alec's desk and sat down next to a pile of papers teetering a little close to the edge, "Why is it that no matter how bitchy I get, you are always there to help me out?"

Alec looked up, surprised. "Because we're a team, Max. Manticore must have gotten something right when they paired us up. Besides, I'm the brains of the operation." He gave her his most winning smile. She rolled her eyes at the thought that perhaps she and Alec were a matching pair.

"You really are full of yourself, aren't you pretty boy?"

"It's a special DNA marker I have. According to Manticore, I have some Logan Cale in my cocktail," this earned him a hard smack around the ears. "Okay, I deserved that one."

"Hate to interrupt, guys, but we've got company," Mole's Head popped in the door, his cigar smoking away.

"What's goin' on?" Alec looked away from Max and towards Mole. He made a mental note to leave the door open on the way out, that Cigar smoke just permeated _everything_ in the room.

"Couple of vigilantes think they can get away with jumping the fence. They're trying to sneak around but there's freaks watching their every move. Some of the crankier residents of Bayview under the freeway are starting to talk about taking them out."

"I think it's time to get the cameras recording, Mole. We want to get these guys out quietly, but you know as soon as they're back on the other side of the fence they're gonna start spinning some story about how we tortured them for days on end. Let's not give them the opportunity." Alec strode out of the office heading directly for one of the camera monitors. So far, there were only two monitors, but they had managed to find enough cameras to cover most of Terminal City. They just needed to be placed in strategic places for the widest view possible. All cameras were fitted with a long range microphone. Some of the freaks didn't like this 'big brother' approach, but as Max had said, what they talked about in the privacy of their own home was still their own business. Just don't say it on the street.

The monitors were split and could show all cameras at once, but even a transgenic's eye would struggle to see any detail. Alec noticed that the record light was already lit up on the hard drive.

"So what's the plan? Pick them up and dump them on the other side of the fence? Smoke them out with one of Mole's cigars?" Dix was sitting behind one of the working computers, controlling the camera directions.

"I vote we just send Maxie here out there to talk to them. You know, with her winning personality, perhaps they'll be prepared to bring us some booze," Max rolled her eyes at Alec again. She wasn't that bad.

"Everyone with a gun head to Bayview. We'll herd them out. There are to be absolutely _no shots _ fired. Head them towards the main gates by the parking garage we had the cops in the other week," Alec glanced at Dix. "How many have we got?"

"I counted twenty-one, they're all pretty obvious. Mostly dressed in forest camo, there's a couple in all black. They sound like a herd of elephants."

"If anyone needs to engage in hand to hand it is to subdue _only_. No actual injuries," it was Max's turn to turn to Dix. "Keep an eye on the monitors, Dix and let us know our progress. Make sure there is always a perfect angle on the group in case we need to release the footage later."

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Joshua was covered in paint from head to toe. He had discovered a small two room office space on Lander street and had made it into his studio. Originally he had intended to use one room to sleep and the other for his art, but somehow even in just a few short weeks his paintings had managed to overtake most of his bedroom as well. There were paintings covering almost every inch of the wall space, as well as over the window, under the bed, and hanging off the back of the door.

His latest work, Joshua number one hundred and forty-seven, was titled 'Mate'. Max had been studying it yesterday and had made a comment about it seeming familiar, like one of his others. She couldn't put her finger on why, and the memory made Joshua smile. Having friends like Kerr could be very helpful for inspiration. His many comments on the love lives of the various X series meant Joshua was never wanting for material.

Kerr had laughed when he first saw the painting, commenting that Josh was lucky he was an abstract painter or he may have been getting an ass kicking.

He was startled out of his reverie by a loud clattering from outside, jarring his sensitive hearing. Poking his head out the door, he was surprised to see a bunch of clumsy ordinaries in badly chosen camoflage bumbling down the sidewalk. He noticed some other transhumans peeking out of their doors and ducked back inside, re-emerging a few moments later with a kevlar vest and an old Glock 17. He didn't really favour guns, but in this situation he would rather take the safe route.

Joshua felt the buzz of his cell against his hip and pulled it out. _Ordinaries jumped fence heading down bayview_, the message read. He quickly replied _Joshua here ordinaries now on Lander. _He quietly hid in the shadows until the threat had passed. A few moments later he was joined in the alcove by one of the cat-like transhumans. For some strange reason she had called herself 'Mouse'. Irony was definitely a popular personality trait amongst the residents of Lander street.

"What's going down, Josh?" Her cat eyes were wide and she looked ready to pounce.

"Ordinaries jump fence. Wait for backup."

"Do you have a spare vest?"

"You wait," He slipped back through the door and came back out with two more vests. It was all he had, but there was bound to be someone else who needed one.

A few seconds later, Alec was by his side. "Hey Josh, you got a BPV?" Joshua handed Alec the armour and he in turn handed it to a small female X6 behind him.

"What's the plan, Alec?"

"We herd them towards the carpark exit. If they try to attack, which they probably will, you aim to subdue. Do not harm them in any way, that's what they want." Joshua understood.

"Bad publicity."

"You got it, Josh," Alec glanced across to the opposite side of the road. Max was in position. They slowly crept forward, guns trained on the intruders. Every now and then they allowed them to see two unarmed transgenics, hoping to lead them in the direction of the carpark. The vigilantes took the bait and before they knew it, they were standing in the same place Max had made her speech only ten days before.

One of the unarmed transgenics headed towards the fence, this was the riskiest part of the operation. If the intruders took advantage of the situation, they could just shoot to kill. Alec was relying on them wanting to have some 'fun'. A little lynching, maybe wanting a burning X this time instead of just a metaphor.

His hunch was right, and a few moments later the mob had the lone transgenic surrounded. They had no idea they had been followed by half the population of Freak Nation.

Guns cocked in all directions and the twenty or so humans spun around, their backs to the transgenic they thought they had 'captured', who promptly sprang over the entire mob and joined the rest of the freaks, pulling a gun from his belt as he turned back to face the intruders. Max stepped forward.

"Now we've got two ways we can play this one out, folks. You lot leave through that gap right over there," she gestured to the hole in the fence they had created when driving through in the SWAT van, "Or you can try doing it the hard way and still end up on the other side of the fence. Which would you prefer?"

The group took one look at the fully armed transgenics and bolted. Alec couldn't help but laugh. He took one look at Josh and with raised eyebrows said out loud what everyone else was thinking.

"Smart lot."


	4. You Give a Kick

**A/N:** I got on a bit of a roll with this one. One scene in particular was an absolute blast to write.

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Two days later saw Max sitting in the living room of the old Sandeman house. You could use one of the cliché expressions for describing the atmosphere of the room, but Max's description was just one surprising word, _relaxed_.

Flanked on one side by her ex, and on the other by her fake boyfriend studying a map was not what Max would consider to be the ideal position, but for some reason it all just seemed so easy. Alec and Logan actually got on quite well when they had the chance to carry on a conversation without Max trying to stop it before it degenerated to 'guy talk'.

"So they entered from the eastern side of TC, using a rope ladder to get off the freeway and then they followed two supposedly unarmed transgenics all the way to the old busway off Holgate street?" Logan gave Alec a disbelieving look. "No attempt to attack at all?"

"My guess is they were looking for a lynching. No use in making an example if you don't make a spectacle out of it." Logan nodded and stood, walking purposefully to his computer and opening a file.

"Shall we release the footage? A bunch of these morons are claiming you shot two of them in the leg and broke a couple of arms as well. Matt Sung says it's only a matter of days until you have half the police force camped out on your doorstep." Logan's eyes were watching the screen, he let out a chuckle when the group scattered and bolted through the hole in the fence. "Somehow I think this video will help sway public opinion even further in your direction."

"We're just concerned about the reaction to the number of firearms we have," Max finally broke her silence.

"_Max_ is concerned about the firearm situation. The rest of us think the public is expecting us to be well organized. After all, it's what we're trained to do." Alec looked to Logan for his opinion.

"Alec's right, Max. The public's not going to be expecting you to sit idly by waiting for the NSA to storm the place. Of course you would have managed to procure some sort of weaponry. Besides, it's not like you're all walking around with AK-47s and rocket launchers. It's just a bunch of nine millimeters and rifles."

"The man has a point, Max."

"Fine, release the footage."

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Max huffed as she was shoved towards a door of one of the warehouses a few doors down from her apartment. "This had better be good, Alec. I was just about to try out the new hot water."

"Trust me, you'll want to have your shower _afterward_. Close your eyes." Max made a big show of squeezing her eyes shut and covering them with her hands. Alec pushed open one of the double doors and led her to the centre of the room. "Okay, you're good to go."

"Wow."

"That's it, _wow_?"

"Wow, this is _incredible_. Is that better?" Max turned to face Alec with a huge grin on her face.

"Thank god, I thought you were gonna bash me for encouraging violence."

"Don't be stupid! We all need somewhere to work out our aggression." Max hit him on the arm and moved towards one of the large sparring mats that was set up in the gymnasium. "Where did you find all this stuff?" She did a backwards handspring on the bouncy mat.

"It was right here all along, it just needed a bit of a spruce up." He dropped down and swept his leg under her feet. She fell to the ground with a thud.

"Ow! You did this just so you could beat me up!" She laughed as she sat up and rested her arms over her knees. "You up for a bit of practice?"

"Told you you wouldn't want to have a shower until afterward." He reached out his hand to help her up and was a little surprised to find himself suddenly on his back with Max straddling his torso. "Now that's not fair, I didn't say go, yet."

"You spent way too much time in Manticore, You need to learn to fight dirty." Alec looked at her with his head cocked sideways and was faintly pleased when a scream eminated from her mouth, "That dirty enough for ya?"

"You pulled my hair!"

"You kneed me in the balls once, I think it's only fair!"

"Fine," She huffed. She quickly jumped up and waited for him to right himself. Half a second later and she found herself having to hastily block a roundhouse kick to the face. "Not the face, Alec. Do you want me going on national television with a black eye and a broken nose?"

"Come on, Maxie. We heal fast." He blocked the retaliating blow to the nose by gripping her wrist. Quickly changing position he had her spun around, back to his chest, her arm tucked in behind her kidneys. "Okay, fairs fair. No more hits to the face," he murmured in her ear. The intimate whisper sent her into a fit of rage and before he knew it she had pulled him towards the nearest wall and flipped over his head, reversing the position.

He dropped to the ground face down, she came with him landing with her face pressed against his neck. He quickly rolled over and released his arm from her grip, copying the position she had him in earlier but straddling her facing the other direction. This was not ideal and he soon found that out when her ankles were wrapped around his neck, heels digging into his barcode. She quickly forced her feet towards the floor and his head connected heavily with the mat.

"Ow! Not the face, remember?"

"Sorry," she sheepishly released Alec's neck from the grip of her legs and helped him out of his uncomfortable position. His nose wasn't bleeding, thanks to the angle he had hit the mat. His forehead had taken the brunt of the blow and there was a slight red patch across the center with the gentle indent of canvas showing through. Max giggled.

"Did you just giggle?"

"No."

"Yes you did!"

"I _do not_ giggle."

"Why did you giggle at me."

"You have canvas marks on your forehead."

"_Aha!_ You did giggle at me!"

"Fine, I giggled. It won't happen again," she was frowning now. The tough bitch persona taking a fall after her slip up. She was allowed to laugh, but giggling was _far_ too girly for Max Guevara. "Let's go again, this time I'm gonna totally beat your ass."Alec smirked. This time he was going to break out the big guns. No more playing around.

He let her throw the first punch, a solid left hook to the chest followed by a roundhouse kick. He caught her foot and rotated her ankle, causing her to spin several times in mid-air before landing in a push up position. She tried the spinning double kick move he had seen her use several times at training at Manticore but he was ready for it, catching her feet before she had completed her first rotation. Max landed back in the same position she started from, this time going for his ankles, succeeding on knocking him to his back.

This time he spun his legs in an anticlockwise direction above his head and was back on his feet in less than a second.

"Come on Maxie, you can do better than this. I could have had you pinned then." He had a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Then why didn't you?" A hungry look adorned her features. Alec found it faintly reminiscent of X5 females when in heat. He stopped.

"Max, are you in heat?" He was standing in front of her completely stationary. Hands by his sides and looking intensely into her face, he wasn't ready for the kick to the stomach. "Oof..."

Winded, he allowed himself to fall backwards into a reverse roll. He was quickly back on his feet.

"See what I mean about playing dirty?" She mimicked the grin she had just wiped off his face moments before. A feral look glinted in his eyes and before she knew it she was pressed to the nearest wall, legs around his waist and her arms pinned to either side of her head.

"You want dirty? I'll show you dirty," his lips were at her left ear. She struggled to free herself, but he was much stronger than she was. Her only advantage was leverage, but currently that was a bit of a problem. His hot breath in her ear was distracting her from the goal of freeing herself and before she knew it she was leaning into his embrace, pushing her hips harder into his.

_Oh god, _am_ I in heat?_

No, impossible. She had gone through her heat cycle only a month before. But for some reason Alec's body just felt so good.......

And then suddenly she was face down on the mat, hands held together at the small of her back and legs pinned to the ground. The lips that had just moments before been breathing heavily into her ear were suddenly in front of her face, a gleeful grin spreading across them.

"I win."

............................................................................................

Kerr blustered into Joshua's studio, a conspirational look adorning his young face. A quick glance around the room found the dog man tucked behind an easel in the corner surrounded by half used tubes of paint, three brushes in his left hand and another in his right.

"Dude, I just totally saw that painting come to life," Joshua looked up from his painting, a smear of red paint on his left cheek giving him the appearance of a kid who got into mummy's makeup box.

"Max and Alec getting busy?"

"Nah, man. But there sure was more than enough tension in the room to light up that there painting of yours."

"Max and Alec arguing?"

Kerr laughed, his eyes twinkling in mirth. "They were sparring in the new gym, they were practically dry humping against the wall." A look of confusion crossed Josuas face, "You know, like he had her pressed up against the wall and her hips.....you know, never mind. All you need to know is that it looks like they're finally getting a clue." Joshua grinned.

"Max and Alec getting to getting busy."

............................................................................................

Alec emerged from the shower with a relaxed cat got the cream look on his face. Max looked up from the couch. "Did you manage to get the indent out of your forehead," she was smirking. Alec glared at her.

"Yes. I had to leave my face under the spray for a whole five minutes."

"I hope you turned the heat down, I'll kill you if you waste all the gas."

"Chill, Maxie. Would I really do that to you?"

"Yes."

"You know what, that hurts. But you are absolutely correct." Max threw the folder she was reading at him. He caught it easily and glanced at the contents. "Gun lockers, Max. I thought you didn't _do_ guns."

"I am reconsidering my position on the firearm policy."

"Learning to talk like a politician I see," he smirked at her and headed towards the bedroom.

"If I'm going to be the unofficial face of the transgenic race I'm gonna have to learn to speak in the language of bureaucracy." Max turned back to the paperwork in front of her. She was much more relaxed after her shower, she certainly needed it to dispel the tension that their spar had seemed to _create_ rather than disperse.

Alec re-emerged from the bedroom in a pair of sweats and an extremely tight white t-shirt that did nothing to help Max's current train of thought. _Concentrate on the supplies list, Max_, she thought frantically._ It's just Alec, you've seen him without any shirt at all countless times_.

"Hey, isn't that the same page you were reading a couple of minutes ago?" He asked, flopping down on the couch next to her, a little to close for comfort.

"Yeah, I'm just a little distracted," _a little, try reading the same page seven times distracted_

"Please don't tell me you're moping over Logan again, because I thought you were finally getting over that," He had an exasperated look on his face.

"I am _not_ moping over Logan," her favorite expression was firmly etched on her face. "I just have a lot on my mind."

"You know, I reckon if we gave them a transfusion, OC and Sketchy could spend a day in the city. I know you miss them, hell, I do too. I'm sure Sketch could spend hours entertaining the guys with his stupid bike tricks." He gave Max a hopeful look. It was almost as if he wanted some interaction with their friends from the outside but wanted to have an excuse to invite them.

"Don't tell me Mr 'I'm always alright' is missing his friendy-wendys."

"Okay, so I'm sick of just being stuck with your bitchy ass all the time. Come on Max, anything to get a smile on that dial." She put the papers on the makeshift coffee table and did the unexpected. She hugged him.

"You know, I think that's a wonderful idea."


	5. I Gave a Slap

**Chapter 4: I gave a slap**

....................................................................................

Alec stood in the shadows outside Original Cindy's old apartment building, vigilantly watching for hover drones or suspicious looking cars that may hold a government agent with a thermal gun. He saw the lights in the apartment switch off and a few moments later Cindy and Sketchy emerged looking nonchalant and chatting. They walked towards the alcove that Alec had told them he would be waiting in and continued to walk past as he joined them.

"Turn left at the next alleyway, there's an entrance there."

The group reached their destination and after ensuring that no-one was observing them, Alec lifted the hatch on the sewer entrance. They climbed down the ladder, the transgenic carefully replacing the cover silently. When he reached the bottom he took a moment to give the two friends a long awaited hug. Sketchy looked a little uncomfortable with the duration of his and Cindy looked a little frightened when her feet left the ground, but they understood the transgenic's point of view. Being away from your friends for extended periods of time could do strange things to your brain.

"It's a long walk guys, so I brought something to make it go a bit faster," propped against the wall of the tunnel were three bicycles. Cindy laughed.

"Boo, we should do this at Jam Pony. Great way to avoid the traffic."

"Normal would have to install a shower, no one would be able to stomach their lunch," Sketchy's nose crinkled at Alec's comment but then a wicked grin crossed his features.

"Normal would love that. You'd probably have him knocking on the door asking to rub oil into your golden rippling chest."

It was Alec's turn to screw up his face as he mounted his bike. "_Do not _ repeat this conversation in Max's vicinity. I won't hear the end of it for months."

They headed on their way, thankfully Sketchy and Cindy were so used to riding bikes for work they could easily keep up with Alec. Three quarters of an hour later they reached their destination, Alec unlocked the metal grate that lead to the cordoned of area of the sewers under Terminal City and a few minutes later they were emerging onto First Avenue. The entrance was only two blocks away from Max and Alec's apartment and after a short walk they were standing outside the door.

The door flew open and Max rocketed out, wrapping her arms tightly around the two ordinaries and almost knocking over them over in her haste. Alec stood to the side and watched the expressions on Max's face change from joy to contentment to confusion as she saw him standing away from the three friends.

"Come on, Alec. Join in the group hug," Max looked up and smiled at him, holding out her left arm creating a gap for him to join in. Alec sighed and gave in, allowing himself a moment of weakness before putting the happy-go-lucky face back on.

"I hate to be a spoilsport guys, but we need to get you down to the infirmary for those transfusions. The last thing we need is for this visit to get you sick."

"Aah, Alec my friend. Always the voice of reason," the irony in Sketchy's voice was evident.

"Come on," Alec started walking down the hall towards the back door of the building. The infirmary was a former medical research lab around the corner from the apartment. Although it looked ready to be condemned at first glance, once you walked inside it was surprisingly well kept. The small staff of field medics had done a thorough sweep of all the buildings in the city and the amount of equipment they had managed to collect was quite astounding. Even most of the walls had been repaired, water stained and smashed drywall replaced by fresh plaster and a bright coat of white enamel.

They were greeted by a tall pink haired female transgenic with olive skin wearing a rather frightening looking pre-pulse band t-shirt.

"Gee Sal, what's with the freaky zombie mummy dude," Alec's lopsided smile seemed to warm the medic's sullen features.

"Who, Eddie? He's just a representation of rebellion against the establishment, shown by a semi-satanic zombie who, in fact, just wants to be loved. I think it's a good metaphor for my feelings today." Sal's sullen mask was back in place, but Alec could see the twinkle in her eye. Sketchy laughed at the comment.

"Dude, I haven't seen one of those in years! My dad bought me one when I was a kid, he took me to an Iron Maiden concert and bought me one at the t-shirt stand. Right before the pulse, too. Probably still got it somewhere."

Sal turned her expressionless face towards the scruffy man, "you don't get your ass on that gurney over there and you'll never see your precious daddy's shirt again."

Sketchy and Cindy didn't hesitate to follow the orders of the scary looking medic, and scuttled over to the two hospital beds she had pointed to. Sal disappeared for a few moments, walking through a door on the far side of the room. The ordinaries turned their heads and looked pointedly at the two remaining transgenics.

"She's not as bad as she seems,' Max piped up.

"So, that woman don't have the devil in her rather fruity looking cocktail? Aiight," Cindy had an eyebrow raised and a dubious look on her face.

"Cut her some slack, Cindy. She's smokin."

Cindy smacked sketchy around the back of the head. "Shut yo mouth, fool. That woman hear you talking like that and you're gonna end up with lizard blood in ya."`

Max's eyes twinkled and she turned away as a smirk managed to creep it's way across her face. Alec saw the movement out of the corner of his eye and knew what had caused the mildly amused expression. Mole was their most dedicated blood donor, and somehow Alec didn't think he would be very impressed with the idea of his blood going to ordinaries.

Sal returned through the door with four bags of blood and some tubing in what looked like a supermarket basket. As she set up for the transfusions, Alec murmured quietly in her ear.

"If Mole asks, this was a direct transfusion from us," Alec and Max would have done a transfusion themselves, but Sal had insisted on using some of the blood stored in the refrigeration room. It had been slowly building up and was starting to run the risk of going to waste. The medics had been spending most of their time seperating the plasma from the red blood cells to try and extend the shelf life, but without a powerful freezer the plasma wouldn't last up to it's potential. There was not point in trying to slow down the donation because they couldn't predict when it would be needed, so the only solution was to tip the expired cells down the drain. At least they could re-use the bags.

..........................................................................................

The group of four meandered down the street towards command, the two ordinaries glad to be out of the direct vicinity of the sullen pink haired transgenic. Max and Original Cindy were talking about Gem and her new baby. She had named her Aroha, it meant love in some foreign language or other, Max couldn't remember which exactly but she thought it might have been Fijian. To be honest, she hadn't really been listening at the time.

"It's Maori," Alec piped up.

"Boo, Original Cindy don't even know where the hell that is," Cindy laughed. She may not know or care where the name came from, but it was a pretty name.

Alec smiled. It was nice to have some interaction with normal humans for a change, sometimes it got tiresome constantly conversing with people who _literally_ knew everything.

"Normal won't stop talking about the delivery. I think it makes him feel a bit like a superhero, ya know, package dispatch manager by day, super midwife by night. Everyone at JP's getting sick of hearing about placentas and umbilical cords," Sketchy's face was screwed up in a mildly disgusted look. "But I have to admit, the bip's have been kept to a minimum. It's almost like just _seeing _a vagina takes the edge of his superiority complex."

"Sketchy, your insights into the male mind never cease to astound me," Max managed to get out between snorts of laughter.

...........................................................................................

Everyone in command turned in surprise to hear laughter coming from outside the door. It was an uncommon sound in the building, sure there were chuckles and snorts from time to time, but very rarely would you hear a wholehearted belly laugh. The sound made sense to the occupants of the room when their commanders walked in with two of the ordinaries who had helped them Jam Pony.

"Original Cindy!" The delight was evident in Joshua's gruff voice. He did a strange little skip cum jog towards the group and enveloped the curly haired woman in a crushing hug. He got a little carried away, and before she knew it Cindy was again lifted two feet off the ground this time adding gasping for air to the mix.

"Woah, Josh. Let the woman breathe!" Alec patted Joshua on the arm and he put Cindy down, an apologetic look on his face.

"Oooh, sorry. Got little carried away."

There were snickers all around. Joshua was definitely one of the largest transgenics and often forgot his own strength. There was a computer desk sitting in a corner that still bore the scars from an incident involving an awkward flight of stairs.

"So this is where it all happens, huh?"

"Indeed it is, Sketch. Not that there's much 'all' going on at the moment." Max was right. Command was pretty much just a computer repair centre that day. Logan had managed to find an old tech lab in sector eight that had been abandoned since the pulse and there were still some salvageable parts littering the building, Most of the good stuff had long been pilfered, but the discerning eye of a transgenic who had been trained in engineering since birth easily identified some of the less obvious components that had been previously passed over.

"Don't forget you have a video conference with Clemente at nine tomorrow morning, Max. Don't be up all night drinking tequila and playing 'I have never' with your pals here."

"You've got tequila, Mole? Nice to see you're sharing."

"It was a hypothetical situation pretty boy,"

Alec reached into the cupboard under the coffee pot and lifted the base shelf. He pulled out a bottle of bourbon and glanced at Mole in mock disbelief.

"You were telling the truth for once....no....wait....heeeeere we go," Triumphantly Alec revealed the bottle of Jose Cuervo. "A present, just for me? You're such a big softie." Mole grumbled, embarrassed that his secret stash was not so secret after all.

"Take it, think of it as a fine for choosing such a blatantly obvious hiding place." A good natured smirk negated the gruff anger in his voice. _Let them have some fun for a night._

"If anyone needs us we'll be in the office. Emergencies only. Emergencies do not include the following: Arguments over office chairs, Moles smoke getting in your eye, Kerr stirring shit, phone calls from Logan, and anything involving the TV remote. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

.........................................................................................

"And then I walked into his office, and he was there just _staring_ at it. It was totally whack!"

The group broke into fits of giggles, Normal's exploits with the umbilical cord were unsurprisingly weird but still hilarious. He had had it preserved in formaldehyde and the jar had it's own special pride of place on the shelf behind his desk. A lot of the staff at Jam Pony refused to enter his office in fear of vomiting at the sight.

Max excused herself and shuffled out to the main room, heading straight for the coffee machine. Even with shark DNA she was still not sure if she was going to make it through to her nine o'clock with Clemente, all the conversation and _laughing_ wearing her out. Who knew if you needed to tire out a transgenic you just needed to put them in a room with a stand up comic? Heading back into the office she put the whole pot on Alec's desk and pulled out four mugs.

"Sorry guys, no cream. It's like gold in this place."

"'sall good girl. You know I like it black as the ace o' spades."

Max sat back down on the couch squished in between Alec and Cindy. She subconsciously found herself snuggling into Alec and he put his arm around her shoulder. Sketchy, who was sitting across from them in Alec's office chair looked at them with his head tilted to the side.

"Something going on with you two?" Max and Alec looked at him, not moving from their current position.

"No, why do you ask?" Alec replied with a mildly amused look on his face.

"You look awfully cosy, dude."

"Fools right, I aint never seen you two looking so _unhostile_."

"_Unhostile_? Is that even a word?" Max turned to the other woman and snorted. "When you spend practically twenty four hours a day together you end up getting a little more comfortable than may be considered normal." She lifted her arm and shoved Alec's head to the side.

"Whatever. But you two should probably tone down the touchy feely. You seriously look like you bumpin uglies."

"I sure hope so. Wouldn't want it getting out to Logan that this whole thing is just a ploy to stop him from carking it on poor old Maxie here."

"So let me get this straight, you two are _trying_ to make it look like you're an item?"

"Of course! Why else do you think there's only one bed in our apartment?" Alec looked back at Sketchy with a mischievous grin.

"You two are sharing a bed?" Original Cindy's shriek had clearly carried to the main command room as they could hear the muffled snickers even with the door shut.

"The couch feels like it's stuffed with rocks and spare car parts, of course we share a bed," Alec responded. He looked back at Cindy like she had lost her mind, "You don't want me to end up a hunchback, do you?"

"And this isn't weird for you?"

"Well it was at first, but we have an arrangement. I don't touch her boobs and I live to see another day."

The two ordinaries laughed, "Fair enough, boo. Fair enough."

.............................................................................................

Max sat in front of the webcam at the best computer in the building, waiting for the satellite link to connect. She had no idea why Detective Clemente had asked for this meeting, but she had a sinking feeling she wasn't going to like it. Alec sat to her left, eyes on the TV in front of them. It currently was showing an article on a local news channel about the vigilantes camped out outside the main gates used for 'official' access to Terminal City. They were still burning the flaming X's, but they weren't quite so rowdy as they had originally been. At least the molotov cocktails had stopped.

"Good morning Miss Guevara," came the voice from the computer. Max looked back down at the monitor and greeted the detective with a grim smile.

"Good morning, Detective. What brings you to my computer screen today?"

Clemente took a deep breath and Max had that sinking feeling again. "I have reason to believe Agent White is back poking his nose where it doesn't belong. I saw him on security camera footage yesterday sneaking into one of the file rooms containing schematics for the sewer systems. He seems to think there are some old tunnels connecting Terminal City with the outside that are no longer marked on maps. Personally I can't see where he's coming from, I mean, they're the NSA, don't they have access to these kind of things?"

"They're not working for the NSA, Detective. Did you forget his secret agenda we discussed at our last meeting?"

"No, Max. I haven't forgotten, but we have to remember that all his movements and actions are officially sanctioned by the United States government. They're threatening to put someone else in charge after the last incident, but until that happens this 'Conclave' you told me about still has access to any and all classified files involving transgenics. ."

"You're right, he has to be up to something. Thanks for the heads up."

"You're welcome, Max. I would also like to let you know that even if some people in the force may think you're a menace, there are some of us out there that can recognize compassion when they see it. Take this as an as close to official thank you for not injuring the group of vigilantes the other night."

"Thank you, Detective Clemente. I apologize for allowing the release of the film without informing you, but things were starting to get a bit hairy with the media. We thought it pertinent to take action straight away."

"It's a non-issue, Max. Take care."

"Likewise, Detective." The image on the screen flickered and disappeared, replaced by the generic blue background of the desktop. Max turned to Alec, "It never stops, does it?"

...........................................................................................

Detective Clemente's warning had certainly come at the right time. Not four hours later a young X6 who had been posted on sentry duty on Stacy street came running in at breakneck speed.

"Sir, sir, there's a van parked up on the freeway. It's been there for two hours and doesn't appear to be moving."

Alec sighed. They were obviously getting desperate. Sure, the freeway gave a good birds eye view of the lower buildings in Terminal City, but the old road was riddled with collapsed sections thanks to the earthquake that had followed the pulse. The van obviously wasn't using the freeway to actually _go_ anywhere, and Alec was surprised at the blatant surveillance action. He turned to Mole, a serious look in his eyes.

"I want a sentry posted at either end of _every block_ around the perimeter. Make sure anything unusual gets noted, even the same homeless guy walking past twice is an event. Got it?"

"Got it, Alec. Now go home and get some sleep."

"Nah, Mole. I'm okay."

"_Go home._ And take Max with you, she's getting all cranky pants."

Alec sighed and headed over to the desk Max had been at the last time he looked. She was gone. Thinking it odd, he wandered into his office to pick up his cellphone and found her sound asleep on the sofa. _She _must _be tired, that sofa's worse than ours. _He crouched down next to her and flicked her in the middle of the head."

"Ow! What did you do that for?"

"Thought it would be fun. It woke you up quick, didn't it?"

"What do you want?"

"Time to go home to bed, it's almost midday."

"Nah I'm okay. I don't need as much sleep as you."

"I'm not taking no for an answer, come on," He knew she wouldn't come willingly so he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. She shrieked, kicking her legs and bashing him on the back with her fists.

"Let me _go_ Alec, I'm _coming_!"

He put her down and she stood in front of him momentarily, a huffy look on her face and her arms crossed. She rolled her eyes and walked out of the office and straight to the main door of command.

"Let us know if anything goes down. And Mole, don't forget to make sure those sentries are taking note of _anything_ going on that the cameras might not pick up. We'll be back around five."

"You got it, lover boy."


	6. You Smashed a Plate

**Chapter 5: You Smashed a Plate**

**A/N:** Man, this one just flowed. There was one scene in particular that I had out in a matter of minutes, and then had particular difficulty with the ending! Thanks so much to those who have reviewed and a HUGE thanks to Amanda for the wonderful review for chapter 4. It really motivated me to write a longer chapter! And Spidhur85, don't worry about me using the whole 'mate' thing to avoid the tension. There is a reference to the concept of a mate in this chapter, but it's more of a vague reference to Max's DNA.

Here's the explanation for the names of some of the secondary characters:

Cam: Cam shaft or belt – parts of an engine that often require servicing.

Kerr: Short for sneaker.

Foreman: Reference to building site Foreman.

........................................................................................

Max sat at the breakfast bar, her head resting on one hand eyes trained on the precise dance being performed in the kitchen. Alec had offered to cook her dinner and even with limited ingredients, whatever it was smelled _amazing_. Alec was moving around the tiny kitchen like a seasoned professional, although she was sure no chef could possibly make cooking look so graceful.

"Why have I never forced you to cook for me before?"

"You were always over at Logan's making googley eyes over pasta," Alec replied, a wry look on his face. He didn't dislike Logan in any way, he just didn't see the spark between Max and Roller-boy. _But then again, Max and I have lots of spark, but you don't see _us_ making googley eyes at each other._ He turned and gave her a wicked smirk, "If I make you pasta, will you make googley eyes at _me_?"

Max reached over the counter and shoved an ice cube she had picked out of her drink down the back of his shirt. He yelped and started jumping up and down, trying to shake it out.

"Okay, okay. No more pasta jokes, I get it!" He turned back to the stove, plopping a frying pan onto a waiting element and adding a good splash of oil. Max had absolutely no idea what he was cooking but it involved tortillas and enough chilli powder that she could feel the burn in her windpipe when she breathed in.

"You know, I really didn't think this was going to work out."

"What, you and me cohabiting?"

"Yeah, I really thought one of us would be lying face down in a half full bath of cold water by now."

"Come on, Max. You're not _that_ bad." Max reached for another ice cube, but Alec was ready this time. She suddenly found herself with a finger in her mouth and was about to make a disgusting size comparison joke when her brain registered exactly what was _on_ the finger. Her mouth opened and she started waggling her tongue around and fanning her mouth.

"Hothothothothothot," the fanning and waggling continued as she sprang off the stool and leapt towards the fridge. Alec watched her in amusement as she gulped from the carton of long life milk. When the carton was gone she reached into the cupboard for another and Alec slapped her hand away.

"That's the last carton."

"You're the one who stuck a powdered fire covered finger in my mouth." She glared at him and slammed the cupboard door. She stomped back to her stool and flopped back down, a sulky look on her face.

"Now there's the Maxie we all know and love."

"Bite me."

"Now now, we wouldn't want to give anyone the wrong idea."

Max rolled her eyes and raised the carton to her lips defiantly. Alec watched transfixed as she rolled the milk around in her mouth, eyes closed as she attempted to soothe her tongue. She swallowed and licked a drop of milk from her lip. He quickly turned back to the pan before she opened her eyes and caught him staring, pretending to be busy patting the oil off the tortillas with paper towels. He placed a plate in front of Max with a flourish.

"Beef and bean quesadillas with tomato and pickled bell pepper relish. Done."

"I hope I can taste it after your wonderful little surprise." She picked up her cutlery and Alec walked around the counter to the other rickety stool. Max took a bite of the golden tortilla and sighed, "Alec, this is amazing. I can't believe _Manticore_ taught you to cook like this."

"They didn't. Manticore taught me to cook Coq au Vin and Cuisse de Grenouille, I learned this from an old Mexican guy in Guadalajara."

"What were you doing down there? Assasination or recon?"

"Neither, it was a protection assignment."

"You were a bodyguard?" Max laughed. Somehow she couldn't imagine Alec standing stoically behind some rich dude in a black suit and Ray Bans.

"Shut up. She was a very nice girl."

"You fuck her?" Her face formed a wry grin.

"Of course. Professionalism wasn't in my contract." He grinned back.

...........................................................................................

Cam walked through the double doors of the gymnasium and looked around in surprise. Almost every mat was in use. Obviously the cabin fever was starting to get to most of the transgenics, as even some of the freaks were sparring. The years they had spent in the basement showed through in their fighting style, wrestling taking the forefront as opposed to the various forms of martial arts and gymnastics that the X series and transhumans favoured.

She looked over to the far corner of the room and saw Max and Alec sparring near the door to the showers, mouths going a mile a minute as they hurled abuse at one another. She had never seen such a viscious fight between a male and female X series, usually the really bad fights were between males when there was a female in their unit who had missed the yellow pill that morning.

Cam's brow wrinkled in concern when Alec landed a particularly brutal roundhouse to Max's shoulder and she moved a little closer to try and catch their conversation. The racket of so many groups sparring and chatting made it difficult to make out what insults they were arguing about, and she was about to go over and interrupt when Max caught Alec behind the knees and they both dropped to the floor in a fit of giggles.

Cam sighed in relief. Apparently they _enjoyed_ beating the crap out of one another.

.........................................................................................

"Pass me the soap, would you?"

"What do I get in return?"

"A night of hot monkey sex?"

"Ew"

"Chocolate body paint?"

"Double ew."

Alec poked his head above the partition in the shower room, his eyes twinkling. "A cure for the virus so you can have hot monkey sex with Logan while making use of chocolate body paint?"

Max briefly wondered why she had to stop herself from saying 'triple ew' before replying. "We both know that aint gonna happen. Just take the damn soap and try and remember your own next time, Mr Stinky."

Alec recognized the hidden tension behind the insult. Obviously he had struck a nerve with that one

"And stop trying to sneak a peek, you pervert."

..............................................................................................

Max sat quietly next to Alec during the meeting that evening. A million and one things were going through her mind, but at the forefront was the thought from the shower twenty minutes earlier. Did she really think that sex with Logan would be gross? Two years of pining and in the end it was just going to go pfft? _I thought the saying was 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'. _Well it's definitely not _abst_in_ence_.

The rest of the group were discussing guns. Not something Max was really that interested in but she understood the necessity. According to Mole they needed more. Alec was attempting to be the voice of reason.

"We can't just go out and steal a bunch of guns, Mole. Someones gonna notice and know exactly who it was."

"Come on, Alec. We can just steal them of some mobsters or something, the cops aren't gonna go after us then."

"Apart from the fact that the Mob has half the Seattle PD in their pocket, that means we can add crazy Sicilian maniacs to the list of people knockin' on our door."

"But we need more guns."

"I _know_. But it's just a bad plan."

"I agree with Alec." Everyone's heads turned to look at Book. No-one really knew why he was at the meeting, but he had managed to insinuate himself into most of the day to day goings on. Oddly, he had managed to put forward some pretty decent contributions. "What, you all just think I'm a brick wall with oatmeal for a brain? It's a bad idea. Everything would be against us, it's just too risky." Most of the group murmured in agreement.

Mole glared at the dark haired X5. "You got a better idea, gorilla man?"

"No, but i'm sure we can all put our heads together and work something out. It's what we were made for, yeah?"

"Book's right," Max finally piped up. "We need to come up with a long term solution to this mess."

"I vote we just ride it out as long as we can. Keep sneakin' everything in through the sewers and wait for the public opinion to turn."

"What about the Familiars, Dix?"

"They've been pretty quiet recently. Connie doesn't seem to think they are going to make a move any time soon, there's too many eyes watching the situation."

Connie nodded. She was a tactics and analysis expert. Alec had had her on his team a few times on Manticore missions and he had told Max he had never known her to misread a situation. _There's always a first time, though_. Max pushed the thought to the back of her mind, ignoring her gut and listening to the logic.

"I think Connie's right, theres no way they're going to storm the place with news cameras everywhere. It would be political suicide."

Alec nodded. "Okay, we sit and wait for now. Everyone back to work."

.............................................................................................

"Max, could you come in here for a sec?"

"I already told you, Alec. I'm not rubbing moisturizer into your back."

"Please, Max. Just come into the bathroom."

Max sighed and put down the file she was reading. Muttering about sexual harassment as she padded to the bathroom she couldn't help dreading walking into the bathroom and being faced with that annoyingly toned torso. She pushed open the door and stood in the doorway, arms crossed over her chest and feet placed apart in an aggressive stance.

"What's the problem? Can't find your stunt cock?"

Alec didn't even crack a smile. He turned around so his back was facing her, pointing just below his left armpit.

"What the hell is that?"

"I was hoping you could tell me." His voice was deadly serious. "It is, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is. But surely Renfro did a full DNA workup on you when they paired us up as breeding partners."

"Must have only been enough to make sure we were compatible."

"I'm gonna go get the camera. Have you spotted any more?"

"Not yet, but there's places I can't see."

Max walked into their bedroom, trying to remember where she had put the old digital camera they had been using to photograph her runes. It had been so long since any new ones had popped up and they hadn't even used it since they moved in.

"Come in here, I don't want the steam in the bathroom getting to the camera."

Max eventually found the device in a bag stuffed at the back of the closet. Alec was sitting on the bed, an odd look on his face.

"You don't think the reason they paired us up is because we _both_ had the wacky DNA, do you?"

"I suppose it's possible. But why would Renfro tell me and not you?"

"She thought I was still a good little reconditioned soldier. Probably thought it would give me a big head. Or make me wonder if there was some agenda _other_ than world domination."

Max nodded, "That would make sense. Take off your jeans, I'll see if there's anything on the back of your legs."

Alec removed his jeans and stood in front of Max in a pair of navy pinstripe boxerbriefs. There was another set of runes on the inside of his right thigh, and another on his right ankle. Alec wondered if it was really necessary to take three pictures of each rune, but Max was insistant.

"You know what this camera's like, every second file manages to end up corrupted." She stood and photographed the original rune he had found, Taking the time to push his arm forward to make sure she got a clear shot. Alec's skin came out in goosebumps at the contact and Max quickly finished snapping, an uncomfortable feeling twisting in the pit of her stomach. "Okay, I'm done."

"Thank god, it's freezing in here." Max let out a breath and sat down, wondering why the uncomfortable feeling had gotten a whole lot worse all of a sudden. Alec sat down on the bed next to her and put his arm around her shoulders. "Come on, Max. It's not that bad. Now you've got a weird tattoo buddy to mutually complain about whacked up gene splicing with."

Max looked at the floor and mumbled something that even Alec's sensitive hearing couldn't make out.

"What was that, Maxie?"

"It doesn't matter." If he didn't hear it then she could forget the thought even crossed her mind.

"Come on Miss emotional vault, let it out." Max took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Do you think that maybe Sandeman _made_ _us_ to be paired from the start. You know, like mates?"

"I think that's entirely possible. But life's what you make of it, isn't it? We don't have _them_ making our decisions for us any more. You're allowed to choose who you want." He mussed her hair and she turned her head to look at him and smiled.

"You really do always manage to find the right words for every situation, don't you?"

"Of course. It's something that I developed _completely_ naturally." He gave her a lopsided smile and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, his finger lingering on her earlobe.

_BANG BANG BANG_

Max jumped at the noise and looked towards the door, "Who is it?"

"It's Kerr, You've gotta see something!"

"Be there in a minute, Kerr!" Max stood, looking back at the man still sitting on the bed. "You coming?"

"Yeah." He stood, following her out the bedroom door and into the living room. Max had stopped at the front door to grab her leather jacket and Alec quietly waked up behind, reaching his arm over her shoulder to grab his. He leaned into her back, lips barely brushing the skin of her neck. A gentle groan came from her throat and she moved her neck to the side, allowing his tongue go gently lick the edge of her barcode "You feel it too, don't you?"

Max stiffened, "It's just genetics, Alec."

He stepped away, grabbing his own jacket in the same movement. Silently berating himself for succumbing to his instincts, he opened the door and waited for her to exit before following, closing the door gently behind him.

........................................................................................

Kerr was far too bouncy and exciteable for Max's liking on the way to command. Her mind was firmly set on analyzing Alec's actions from five minutes before and the X6's incessant humming and tapping was distracting her from the far more important issue of whether or not her body wanted to jump Alec's bones. _Why am I even asking myself this? Even if my body _does _want Alec, my mind _doesn't_ so it's a moot point._ She turned her head to her left where the aforementioned was trotting along beside her wearing a carefree expression. _How does he just switch off like that? _She knew it wasn't likely that he was messing with her, but the thought still crossed her mind.

Kerr lead the pair through command which was virtually empty, just a lone X4 watching the security monitors and Sal at the coffee pot.

"Hey Sal, what's up?" Alec looked at the medic with a confused look on his face, she very rarely entered command preferring to spend most of her time at the infirmary or the gym.

"Heard there was something going down out back, thought I'd come check it out."

"It appears we are headed for the same event, Kerr here won't tell us anything."

"Apparently Cam has invented something incredible."

Sal finished stirring her coffee and walked with them to the garage. They walked through into the large open air area that had once been a car park where there was a decent sized group of transgenics gathered around in a circle. Mole turned towards the smaller group.

"Good, you're here, let's get started."

"What's going on?" Max asked, hands on her hips.

Cam stepped forward, "I have invented a way for us to both enjoy ourselves _and_ get a bug onto every rooftop in the area, people, I give you the omniscient firework." She reached down and lit a fuse. Everyone stepped back a few steps and the rocket flew into the sky, exploding into a beautiful group of starbursts in red, blue and yellow. "I think that one went high enough."

"Are you trying to tell me that you are bugging all the buildings in the area under the guise of us trying to have a good time?" Alec looked disbelievingly at the small X6.

"Exactly."

"Cam, you really are brilliant, you know that?"

"I am aware of the fact, yes." Everyone laughed.

............................................................................................

The fireworks display ended up drawing quite a crowd, and the party atmosphere inspiring a lot of the population to let their hair down. Max watched as Alec entertained a large group with tales of his exploits somewhere in eastern europe, she had never really bothered with the whole class clown thing, instead preferring to stay in the background observing the behavior of said class clown. This one was outwardly just the usual smart alecky jokester everyone knew and loved, even his eyes not betraying the spanner that had just been thrown in the proverbial works.

Max knew she should probably tell Dix about the latest rune developments, but she didn't want to ruin his night, instead choosing to sit quietly in the corner with her large plastic cup of bourbon and a thick file containing the possible translations of her sets of tattoos. Nothing seemed to match up. None of the images in her file contained similar runes to the ones that had popped up on Alec that morning, which lead her to the conclusion that Alec's runes told a different prophecy, most likely part of the the key to unlocking the whole code.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Max looked up calmly at the man standing on front of her. His head was cocked to one side and an eyebrow was raised. He took a sip of his drink.

"I'm not in the mood to party tonight, Alec."

"Not in the mood to party doesn't mean _working_. Come on, join in the fun." His voice sounded a little strained to her and she couldn't help but feel a little sulky.

"I don't want your pity, Alec. Just leave me alone for a bit, huh?"

"What, so you can sit here and stress out about your runes? Newsflash, Max, we were made in the same lab. You can switch of just as well as I can." He took the file from her hand and dumped it on the desk next to the couch she was nestled into. "You're going to have a good time, even if it kills us both."

Max sighed and stood up, sullenly following Alec back to the group he had been entertaining earlier.

"Pay up boys," everyone turned in their direction and groaned. Notes were held out towards Alec and he smirked as he plucked them from their hands one by one. Max whacked him hard on the back of the head. "Ow, that was a little unecessary."

"You _bet_ you could get me to stop working?"

"Well, I _wanted_ you to stop working, but I knew I needed a bit of motivation." Max looked at him with an exasperated look on her face, which quickly disappeared as she yawned. Alec knew she was faking it – Max never yawned – but he succumbed to the manipulation all the same. "Come on, Maxie, lets get you home."

"Max go home already?" Max smiled tiredly at the dog man, feeling a little bad for the deception. She had barely spoken to him all day, too engrossed in politics and strategy to take some time out for her friend.

"I'd better go have a snooze too, Josh. It's nearly midday and I need a few hours before I'm ready for more sitting around planning nothing." He put his arm around Max's shoulders and they said their goodnights. The entire room surreptitiously watched them walk out the doors and moments after they had left, Joshua repeated a short sentence from a couple of days earlier, easing the tension in the room and causing a few of the occupants to let out a snicker.

"Max and Alec getting to getting busy."


	7. Over My Head

**A/N:** Sorry I havn't updated for a few days, but I have been out of town at the in-laws for the last few days. Didn't even have a chance to write a paragraph, as we were far to busy having every kind of alcohol you can imagined forced down our throats. Take it from me, don't marry a man who has a winemaker for a father. It is detrimental to both your sobriety and your waistline. It'll probably be a few days between chapters again because we have a friend staying between moving out of her house and moving back to Oz. Also I'd had a few beers when I wrote the last part. Sorry if it's a bit odd.

I thought I would take a moment to mention something that alecsangel brought up in a review (thanks for all the positive feedback, by the way!). You might have noticed that I don't refer to all the transgenics who don't look human as transhumans. I have decided to create a distinguishable line between those who were designed for a specific purpose (like mole, for instance who is designed for desert operations) and those who were experiments (like Joshua and the panther lady from POP). The ones referred to as transhumans are those with the obvious purpose. It might be derogatory, but the experiments are the 'freaks', however, I think they would wear that label with pride. Again, thanks all for the reviews and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Sorry if you feel Alec's a bit out of character in this one, but let's not forget he has a lot going on that we were never let in on.

**Chapter 6: Over My Head**

........................................................................................

Ames White stood in front of the large monitor, eyes watching the security camera footage without emotion. He waited until the agent behind the computer paused the footage, indicating it was the end of the display and then turned to face the man behind him.

"Would you care to tell me, Otto, why you woke me at five thirty a.m. for a _fireworks display_."

"Well, sir, I thought maybe they were up to something."

"With _fireworks_?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." Sheepishly, Otto closed the window containing the media player and set the computer to screen saver mode.

"Tell me, did the mic pick up a lot of noise coming from the area this morning?"

"Yes, sir."

"Did it occur to you that they might have been having a _party_?"

"It seemed an odd time to have a party, sir. It was five in the morning."

"Well at least we have _one_ piece of information to _glean_ from this _waste of my time_."

"What's that, sir?"

"They're nocturnal, you moron."

...........................................................................................

Alec watched as Max stretched, standing on her tiptoes and reaching her hands as close to the ceiling as possible. She was wearing a tiny grey tank top and a pair of black boyleg panties and Alec knew he really shouldn't be turned on by the large row of black symbols running down her side, but he just couldn't help himself. He stepped into the room and went to stand beside her, running his index finger from under her armpit to the waistband of her underwear. Max shivered.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She glared at him like he had just stolen her favorite pair of motorcycle boots.

"You've got another one," he replied, pushing up the hem of her tank top a little to get a better look.

"Oh. Well are you going to take a photo?" She crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'll have to take a few to get the whole thing, it goes the length of your torso."

"Whatever, just get it over with." She handed him the camera and he lifted the top as high as he could while still preserving her modesty. He took five close up photos and attempted to repeat the process from above her top, awkwardly trying to hold the top down and take the photo with one hand. Max huffed and shoved his hands away. She tucked her arm underneath the top and lifted it, holding the front against her breasts with her left hand and allowing the rest to bunch over her shoulder. She lifted her arm so he could finally capture an image of the entire group of runes in one shot.

"All done."

Max put her top back into place and took the camera, pushing the button that allowed her to review the images on the memory stick. Her brow furrowed and she tilted her head down to look at Alec, whose hand was still lingering on her hip, his eyes studying the runes there.

"They look a lot like yours."

"I was thinking the same thing. It's odd though, isn't it? No runes on you for over a week and then suddenly we're both covered in them." His fingers were no longer on her hip, but she could feel the lingering tingle of his touch.

"I'm sure Dix and Logan can figure it out." She shoved the comforter aside and got into the bed, pushing her feet against his ass to get him to move. He got the hint and stood, moving to his side of the bed and mirroring her movements. There was no need to turn the light off as the makeshift curtains didn't really do much to shut out the weak sun, which was making a rare appearance that day. Alec propped his head up on one hand and looked at Max's still form.

"I don't know how much longer I can do this for." She stayed completely still, only moving her pupils to look at him. He continued, "I can't keep sharing this room with you every night knowing that when you get that cure you're going right back to Logan. I'm starting to get used to your snoring and bed hogging."

Max Laughed. "Trust you to try and seduce me by insulting me."

"I'm not trying to seduce you! Believe it or not, I just enjoy your company. When you get the cure I'm gonna be on my own again, it was kinda lonely."

"Come on, you'll be able to go back to your old self. No more Maxie cramping your style." She smiled a genuine smile and Alec laid his head back down on the pillow. He went quiet for a moment and sighed.

"Yeah."

.......................................................................................

Alec sat quietly in his office that evening, a glass of scotch in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Max was visiting Joshua which was a good thing for Alec – she'd kill him if she caught him smoking. It was a bad habit he had picked up while on the governors chef assignment, apparently the only way to get a bit of down time in that industry was to act stressed and then desperately intone that you _needed _a smoke and would be back in five. Alec's adaptable nature had lead him to following suit so as not to draw attention to himself, Manticore would have thrown him in the hole for a month if he had had the independent thought to ignore his training and refuse to take up the cancer sticks out of some strange sense of _self preservation_. He had certainly never expected to be stuck between that particular rock and hard place, and logic had eventually won the the internal argument. He figured their DNA would have been created to be mostly immune to gene mutations like cancer.

Now, Alec only succumbed to the urge when something was playing on his mind that he couldn't compartmentalize. The last time was when Rachael died, this time it was thanks to the wonderful untouchable Max.

Alec sighed. He wasn't supposed to be attracted to a tough bitch like her, his type was more sweet gentle girls who wouldn't call him on his philandering. She would be bad for him, their relationship would be a constant power struggle probably ending badly and ruining the closeness they had developed over the past few months.

Alec went to the window and flicked the cigarette butt out onto the street. He closed the latch, not bothering about the smell of the smoke. Mole's cigars were much more pungent and would without a doubt be stinking up the small office in a matter of minutes. He stood at the window listening to the sounds coming from the main operations room next door. Dix had the mics from the roofs surrounding the razorwire connected to the main radio in the building. Every so often the pre pulse music playing was interrupted by some noise the microphones picked up, however so far none of them had transmitted anything of significance.

As predicted, Mole sauntered into the office a few moments later, cigar gripped between his teeth.

"Jeez, man. When are you gonna stop pining after her and just get on with it?"

"What the hell are you talking about, Mole? I'm not pining after anyone. I'm perfectly happy with Max, thank you very much."

Mole sighed, He knew it was pointless. It was beyond him to contemplate how their two leaders could honestly think the general population was that dense. Oh, sure they knew that they were a perfect match, but there was just so much tension there that there was no way anything had been done to ping the proverbial rubber band. Mole let the thought go and continued,

"Dix just had a video conference with Logan, says he's had someone approach him from White's team wanting to switch sides."

"And what makes him think we would trust that? It's probably just a ploy to get us to let our guard down," Alec exclaimed disbelievingly. Did this guy honestly think they were that stupid?

"He's prepared to prove himself."

"How so?"

"He's willing to mess with the software on the heat scanners."

"Even if they change the temperature setting it will still show us up. It just means normal humans will show up cooler than they should, which will just set of alarm bells in the other direction." Who was this guy kidding? He was obviously a moron.

"He says there's something he can do which will make the temperature sensor register everything between ninety eight and one hundred and two as a _randomized_ reading between ninety eight and ninety nine and a half. It still allows for normal fluctuation in human body temperature but won't make us show up any different to anyone else."

"Do it. I'm not gonna test it though, tell this guy if it's an attempt to get us going outside the gates, it aint gonna work. Who is it, do we know?"

"Logan thinks it might be Agent Gottlieb."

Alec nodded. He had always thought the olive skinned man wasn't quite enjoying being the whipping boy as much as White seemed to think.

............................................................................................

It had been a reasonably quiet night at command and Max decided to head to the gym early. It was three am and reasonably empty, just a few X6s sparring on the mats. She moved towards one of the punching bags on the left hand side of the room and laid down her training bag. Sparring with Alec was good for practice, but it didn't really do much to take her mind off all the crazy shit that was gong on.

Max didn't hold back on the bag. She was determined that by the time she had finished with it, it would be in serious need of a sewing machine. She punched and kicked, blurring with every movement, the undisguised frustration showing through in the level of violence she was laying on the bag.

Max hadn't heard the person enter through the main double doors of the gym, engrossed in her workout and when she sensed someone standing behind her she spun, gripping their neck with her right hand and forcing them up against the wall with a thud.

"Woah, Maxie. Just me." Alec rasped holding his hands up in surrender, a slightly tentative smile lifting the corners of his mouth.

"Sorry, got a bit carried away."

"No shit, you looked like you were going to murder that bag." Max let go of his throat and went back to her workout.

"So what's up?"

"Logan had one of White's goons contact him. Wants to become an informant."

"Which one?" Max continued her violent assault on the inanimate object hanging from the ceiling.

"Otto Gottlieb." Max landed a splendidly brutal roundhouse kick to the bag and turned to face Alec, black sack swinging behind her.

"Never thought he would have the balls." She walked back to the wall and picked up her towel, wiping the sweat from her neck and forehead. "You wanna spar?"

"That's it? No agonizing discussion about whether or not we can trust a traitor?"

"White treats him like shit, I can't say I'm surprised he wants to switch sides. I would if I were him. Besides, you're the boss." Max looked at him with raised eyebrows, waiting for him to agree. After a few moments she realized he wasn't going to respond and reiterated her question from earlier. "So do you need a workout or should I head for the showers?"

"Bring it on."

...........................................................................................

They sat across from each other later that morning, occasionally glancing at one another, but mostly concentrating on their plates. Their skirmish had been a particularly ferocious one and both transgenics were a little shamefaced with exactly how much they had allowed themselves to switch off the human parts of their brains. Alec had a large split in his left eyebrow and a dark shadow on his jaw. Max wasn't looking much better, and she was not particularly enjoying the meal as her tongue was swollen and tender from where she had put an eye tooth through it.

"Sorry about the tongue."

"Sorry about the eyebrow." Max picked up the fork and shoveled the last of the stew into her mouth, being careful to place it as close to her molars as possible. "I'm going for a shower."

"You just had one at the gym."

"It was cold, and now I'm cold. You don't want a human fudgy buddy in bed with you tonight do you?" Alec laughed and picked up the empty bowls. He watched as she headed towards their bedroom for a towel, a hungry look in his eyes. Something about a beat up Max just turned him on more than anything else.

"Do you want a drink?"

"Could you open me a beer? I"ll be out in a couple of minutes."

Alec opened a bottle of corona for her and grabbed a bottle of scotch and a glass for himself. A few minutes later Max emerged, steam following her and that ridiculous get up from yesterday afternoon again revealing far more skin than he was entirely comfortable with. He swallowed thickly and concentrated on pouring himself a drink.

Thankfully, Max returned with a sleeping bag pulled right up around her shoulders. She shuffled along the floor, occasionally jumping forward to get to the couch determined not to get out of the warmth just for the sake of an easier trip across the living room, finally flopping down next to Alec she reached forward for her beer. At the last minute she changed her mind and knocked back the glass of brown liquid Alec was half way through consuming. She refilled the glass and repeated the movement.

Alec snatched the glass from her grasp, "Mine. Get your own."

"My tongue's sore and I'm still cold, it warmed me up."

"You're wrapped in a sleeping bag suitable for the Arctic circle in winter. How can you still be cold?" Incredulous, he again filled the glass, this time making sure to keep a firm grip on it.

Max took a sip from her beer. "I'm gonna need to pee just when I get warm, aren't I?" Alec snorted and nodded. It went without saying.

............................................................................................

It happened when Max couldn't stand the uncomfortable feeling any more. She finally got out of the bag and went to the bathroom.

Everything was perfectly normal, she did her business, sighing at the relief and washed her hands. Nothing unusual took place until she was closing the door behind her. One moment her eyes were focussed on a piece of gum stuck to the carpet and the next Max suddenly found herself pinned to the door, hands pressed to it on either side of her head.

"Tell me you feel it too, Max."

"Alec, don't do this." Alec's mouth was at the nape of her neck, his body barely touching hers, breath hot against her neck.

"Give me a reason and I'll stop," he moved his head so that they were nose to nose, body still teasing her with the lightest contact. Hungry eyes met hers and she found herself wanting for words.

'.....Uh...."

"Sorry, not good enough," and his lips were on hers, angry, demanding, and utterly mind numbing. She found herself pressed harder into the door, legs lifted to wrap around Alec's waist, breasts pressed against his chest. Her hands had moved into his hair, gripping tightly and forcing his mouth harder into hers. She opened her mouth, let go of his hair, soft fingers traveling to his jaw, and moved her head so their noses were again touching.

"This is a really bad idea," she murmured entirely unconvincingly.

Alec ignored her. His mouth was again pressing against her own, this time softer, mouth open against hers occasionally sucking on one of her lips. Max moaned at the erotic action, her tongue slipping into his mouth and dancing with the tip of his. She was quickly forgetting why she shouldn't be kissing him, it had been so long since she had....

"Wait, stop."

Alec pulled away from her, looking for all intensive purposes like someone had poured a bucket of iced water over his head.

"Sorry, you're right. It's a bad idea."

"Yeah, really bad." she already had her hands pressed against his chest, ready to force him away.

"I'm sorry." There was a look of regret in his eyes and his body was tense with badly disguised anger.

Max walked away. She turned to look back at him when she reached the bedroom, he was leaning against the door she had been up against just moments earlier, his forehead on the cold wood veneer.

She turned around and went to bed.


	8. Then I Set Fire to Our Bed

**A/N:** Again, wonderful reviews guys. Special thanks to Amanda, you really are amazing and I appreciate the in depth analysis of my writing and narrative, and also Punkie and Alecs Angel. I get really excited when I find there's more than a one liner there! I had a bit of a hard time with this one, as it's kind of a transitional chapter. Hopefully the writers block meant I put more thought into what eventually came out.

**CHAPTER 7: Then I Set Fire to Our Bed**

................................................................................................

Max awoke that afternoon alone and cold. The cosyness she usually associated with being in bed did not apply when Alec's warm body wasn't sprawled across the majority of the mattress. She curled up into a tight ball, attempting to ignore the urge to go to the bathroom, knowing it would mean walking past Alec whom she could hear snoring on the couch. He had clearly finished the bottle of scotch as the noise coming from his sinuses was more than a few decibels louder than usual.

She finally gave in and snuck out of bed, gathering some clothes and quietly creeping through the door, lightly stepping the two metres to her destination. Alec remained asleep and Max let out the breath she had been holding. She quickly finished her business, not bothering to flush - so as not to wake the snoozing male in the living room - and dressing haphazardly. She decided to shower at the gym, the noise of the plumbing would probably wake Alec, and she really wasn't in the mood for a confrontation.

"I know you're trying to avoid me."

Max started at the voice coming from the other side of the room and ducked her head as she opened the door.

"Come on, Max. Stop being such a bitch."

She hissed in anger and spun on her heel, the glare she was shooting him cold enough to freeze Venus on a hot day. "Don't you _ever_ call me that again, you _asshole._"

Alec stood, shoving the sleeping bag away from his body and stalking towards Max. She backed up, suddenly afraid of the man before her. His eyes were burning with something she could not place and she could see the tension in his bare torso, she stepped back towards the ajar door, hand reaching for the handle to pull it fully open. Before she could grip it, however, she found herself pressed up against the hard wood for the second time in a few hours.

This time Alec held his body as far away from hers as possible, hand pushing against her collarbone forcing her backwards. "I'm not the one who's turned into a cold fish, Max. Take a chill pill and lighten up, it was just a kiss. No harm done." He let her go, stepped away and calmly walked towards the bathroom. Max watched him go, turning back towards the door, a hard gulp forced down her throat. "Don't go anywhere, I'm coming with you."

Max turned back to him, questioning look in her eyes.

"I'm presuming you're going to the gym?" She nodded.

...................................................................................................

Max walked half a pace ahead of him all the way, obviously trying to avoid any sort of contact whether it be physical or visual. Alec ignored her and continued to walk at his own pace, not bothering to attempt any sort of conversation, he knew it would be futile. After several minutes of uncomfortable silence they finally reached the gymnasium. Max flung the doors open angrily and Alec slunk into the cavernous room behind her. He branched off to the left towards the climbing wall.

"Where do you think you're going?" The angry voice came from behind him and he turned. Max was standing by the door hands on hips, fierceness radiating from her person.

"I'm going to do some climbing, am I not allowed?" The eyes of the few transgenics in the room were watching the exchange avidly, curious as to what had caused the sudden animosity between their two leaders.

"I thought you wanted to spar."

"No, I want to climb."

"Why did I have to wait for you to pee then?"

"What's the point of walking over here thirty seconds apart?"

"Why do we have to do _everything_ together?"

"We _live_ together."

"Hmph...." Max stomped off to the punching bag, strapping on a pair of lightweight training gloves. Alec watched her start pummelling the bag and turned back to the wall, placing his foot on the first rung. He climbed to the top quickly and sat on the ledge watching over the occupants of the room. All of them were involved in light bouts except for Max, who was once again looking like she was trying to beat the living daylights out of a lifeless black canvas sack.

Alec heard a grunt from below and glanced down. Cam was on her way up the wall and a few moments later flopped down on the ledge next to him.

"Sup?"

"Hey, Cam." He sounded mildly sullen.

"Gee, someones a cranky-pants today. What's the matter, you knock someone up or something?" Alec looked at her and crinkled his nose.

"Sometimes you say the most random things."

"What? Everyone around here seems to be havin' babies at the moment. Thought you might have jumped on the bandwagon."

"No thanks, babies are definitely _not _my bag, besides, I never go anywhere without a little insurance policy." He gave her a cheeky grin.

Cam looked at him disbelievingly, "Please, everyone knows you haven't gotten any since you moved into TC. You and Max have so much tension there's no _way_ you've done it."

"Then why did you ask a dumb question then?"

"Because I like making you uncomfortable. You should have seen you bristle, it was golden." Cam shot him a cheeky grin and punched him in the shoulder. "Come on, come spar with me."

"I'm not fighting a sixteen year old."

"Why not? I'm a combat model like you. I can fight baddies _while_ fixing the engine of a humvee. You can only fight baddies if you're concentrating."

Not one to back down from a challenge, Alec edged forward. "Race you to the mats," and they were off.

..................................................................................................

Max sat in front of the monitor yet again, another video conference in progress. Clemente was again the bearer of bad news.

This time it was the governor causing problems, he was insisting the local government plant a spy inside the razor wire. Max was attempting to explain to Clemente the multitude of ways the ridiculous idea wouldn't work, and he _wasn't_ arguing.

"Yes, Max, I know it won't work. You won't give a blood transfusion to someone who you are supposed to be pretending to believe is transgenic, and without the transfusion they won't be able to stay inside the boundary. The main problem we have, however is the governor isn't going to back down on this one. I think what you're going to need to do is play along. Let the guy break into your infirmary and steal the blood, pretend to believe he's some sort of faulty product. It's going to be your best option if you want to leak false information."

Max sighed. "You're right, I'm just not sure we're going to be able to keep him out of any sensitive business without arousing suspicion. He's bound to wonder why we're blocking his every move when we're supposed to believe he's one of us."

"Trust me, Max. You'll figure it out, you always do."

"When can we expect the plant?"

"They're planning on sending him in tonight."

"Okay." She gave a little salute and shut off the webcam.

Mole looked at her from the other side of the room. "So what's the plan?"

"I'll have to talk to Alec about it. He'll probably be able to figure something out."

"What, not taking it upon yourself to singlehandedly save the population?"

"Shut up and get back to work, Mole."

........................................................................................................

A quiet knock sounded on the office door and Alec looked up from the file on his desk. Max peeked around the corner of the door hesitantly.

"What did Clemente want?"

"Governor wants to send in a spy."

"And...."

"They're dropping him tonight."

"Great. You have a plan?"

Max told him what she and the detective had discussed, watching Alec's face closely for approval.

Alec nodded in agreement when she mentioned using his position as an informant to their advantage. "I think that should work. We just need to make it clear he's not welcome in command from the get go. If his cover is as a defective unit then we would have no use for him here. When he starts getting a bit too nosy we kill him."

"And how do you propose we do that?"

"We make a big deal about someone stealing from the lab. Make sure he's leaked it to his handlers and then dope the blood."

"The government's not going to believe we'd kill one of our own for stolen blood."

Alec wore a ponderous look, his eyes staring into the middle distance. After a few moments they snapped back to Max, "We just claim we thought it was a non combat transgenic looking for an upper hand in a boxing match. Put something in the blood that won't do much to one of us, but would kill an ordinary."

"Sounds like a plan." She spun on her heel and reached for the doorhandle.

"Why all the avoidance, Max?" She paused briefly, and Alec thought she might be ready to discuss the pink elephant in the room. She continued through the door.

Alec sighed and continued reading the file.

.................................................................................................

The call came in close to three am. Four X5s and an X4 had just arrived in Seattle and were requesting a pickup not far from Alec's old apartment. Mole and Kerr volunteered for the pickup, each taking some fold away bikes and a selection of guns.

Joshua watched with excitement as they left through one of the entrances to the sewers on Lander street. He always looked forward to new faces in the city, happy to have new subjects for his portraiture. Joshua number one hundred forty seven was abandoned for the time being. It looked complete to the uninitiated, but Joshua knew there was still something missing.

"Hey Josh, what's goin' on?" Gem was standing to his left, Aroha cradled in her arms.

"Extraction team going to sector five. New people, Joshua excited."

"I bet you are. More unwitting models huh?"

Joshua grinned, "You want drink?"

"Why not? I'm not getting any sleep thanks to this one anyway," she nodded down to the baby in her arms, a gentle smile playing on the corners of her mouth.

"Aroha not sleep well?" Joshua's voice was tinged with concern and Gem snorted.

"Her father was a night model, like Max. She's definitely taken after him." Joshua nodded in comprehension. He opened the door to his flat and waited for Gem to walk into the front room. It was still as messy as the other day when Kerr had visited, and he had to clear a chair of newspaper and paintbrushes so she had a place to sit.

"Don't... don't think paint on chair."

"'s okay hun, I'm covered in baby vomit most of the time anyway." Joshua was busying himself making a pot of tea. He was lucky enough to have procured some earl grey from one of the hustlers on Oak street. Sometimes being an artist was an excellent bargaining tool, and he was always striking deals, swapping his work for various commodities. He placed a mug in front of gem and a little container of what he liked to refer to as 'airplane milk' next to the pot of tea.

Gem laughed at the mug. He had obviously found it in one of the offices because it loudly proclaimed in bright pink that she was the 'worlds sexiest boss'.

"Sorry 'bout airplane milk. No refrigerator." There was that goofy grin again.

"That's cool. So what's the deal with the extraction?"

"Group of X series in sector five. Four five and one four. Alec say four not really four."

"What do you mean the four's not really a four?"

"Human sent by government. Spy." Joshua took a sip of his tea, "Fives meet him near checkpoint looking to get to sector seven."

"Let me guess, Alec's going to use him to send false intelligence?" Joshua nodded. "Do we know who else is in the group?" Joshua nodded, grin widening.

"Niners."

.......................................................................................................

They sat silently at the breakfast bar picking at their food. Every so often Alec glanced at Max, looking for any sign of emotion but all that sat in front of him was a cold shell.

"Would you please just get over yourself and talk to me?"

Max frowned at his question. At least she was finally expressing pathos. Alec sighed and stood. He dumped his bowl in the sink and headed for the bathroom, looking forlorn. "Would you stop acting like everything is about _you_ all the time." It wasn't a question.

"Look who's talking. I'm thinking of two objects right now and I'm pretty sure they're both black." Alec's hand was on the doorhandle, his face was perfectly calm, but his hand was gripping the knob almost hard enough for it to crack.

Max glared at him and turned back to her dinner. Alec slipped into the bathroom and shut the door quietly. Max threw her mug against the wall.

A few moments later he re-emerged looking unnervingly calm, picking up a dustpan he cleaned up the mess Max had made with her glass and wrapped it in newspaper, depositing it in the garbage. Max made the mistake of ignoring him and continuing to push her fork around her plate.

She was pinned to the floor seconds later, his attempt at calming himself obviously futile. His eyes held a burning anger and Max could feel the fury in the shaking of his arm as he held her to the carpet. This Alec scared her.

"Wake up, Maxie. The worlds not gonna end because you let me kiss you."

She looked at him with a mixture of anger and fright, "Get off me, Alec. You have no idea what goes on in my head." He gripped the collar of her shirt and pulled her into a sitting position, him straddling her thighs. They were nose to nose and Max wanted out of the situation as soon as possible. "Fuck off!"

She shoved him hard, forcing his torso backwards towards her legs, his head hit the steel cap of her boot and he yelped in pain. She took the opportunity to slip out from his trap, backing up against the wall.

"Why the hell won't you just tell me what's wrong?" He was yelling at her, rubbing the back of his head. Some of his anger appeared to have dissipated, leaving behind a mildly pissed off man with a very sore head.

"You don't get it do you?" She was yelling at _him_ now, "I _let_ you kiss me. I _wanted_ it.!"

"So what's the big fucking deal?"

She growled in frustration. He just didn't _get it_. She surged forwards and before he knew it, Alec found himself on the receiving end of a frustrated punch to the jaw. He gripped her arm, twisting it behind her back and shoved her face forwards towards the kitchen island, slamming her torso down on the counter and sending yet another piece of crockery smashing to the floor. Max grunted in surprise.

He leaned over, tickling her earlobe with his lips. "If you wanted it, then why did you stop?"

Max tried desperately not to lean into his hard body, but her own reflexes betrayed her. She found herself pushing backward into his hips, head tilting back to rub her cheek against his. Alec pulled away, lifting her as he moved. He turned her around and hoisted her back onto the hard Formica, legs wrapping around his waist and chest pressed hard to his own.

"Why did you stop, Max?" He asked again.

Her hands had found their way into his hair, massaging his scalp and gripping large clumps of dirty blond. Her lips were so close to his he could feel her breath against his own. "Because it was Manticore who wanted it first."

He wouldn't have done what he did next if she had made some excuse about Logan. He had said before that he wasn't the type to steal another guys girl, and he wasn't lying. This time, the older man didn''t even factor into the equation, and Alec threw caution to the wind and kissed her. A hot, wild, open mouthed kiss that left them both breathing heavily, hands tangled in each others hair

At least that's what would have happened if the door hadn't flown open just as his lips were about to touch hers. Mole barged in, a shotgun slung over his shoulder and what could pass for a mildly excited expression attempting to play across his lizard features. The look disappeared at the scene in front of him, and was replaced by a gleeful grin.

"Well, well, well. Lookey what we have here."

Alec turned his head, not breaking body contact with Max. She had buried her head in his neck, obviously embarrassed by their unwitting display. Alec was about to tell Mole to piss off when he realised that he wasn't the only voyeur in the room. Kerr stood behind him along with four x5's two of whom looked familiar.

"Ben?" It was the shorter blond female who said it, causing Max's head to snap up, a sheepish but happy expression playing on her features as she shoved Alec away.

Expletives were firing around his brain like never before. No-one had told him the pick up was for a bunch of niners, and to say he was pissed was the understatement of the century. He glared at Mole.

"Say hello to your new commanding officer, X5-494." Mole turned towards the group behind him, snickering quietly to himself. "I prefer to call him Randy, but everyone else seems to call him Alec."

Max had reached the group and pulled each of them into a tight hug, lingering longer on the redheaded female and the Caucasian male. Alec forced a smile and clapped his hands together.

"Don't I get an introduction?"

..................................................................................................

Four hours later and Alec finally returned to the apartment. He had left with Mole and Kerr after making nice with Max's 'brothers and sisters' for a few minutes. He needed to scope out the informant, and as much as he wanted to stay around Max and her nostalgia party, duty called.

X4-267 was about six foot two, twenty-sixish and had dark brown hair. There was nothing remarkable about him except for the obviously new ink tattoo on the back of his neck. The cops had given him the identity of one of the transgenics White had captured and killed when rounding up the escapees a year earlier. Mole had placed him in an apartment on Oak street with most of the other X series. Alec had eventually got bored watching him from the building across the street and decided to go home. His whole apartment was bugged anyway.

As soon as he walked through the door he started regretting his decision. The group of five was squeezed onto their three person sofa, giggling madly, tears streaming down their faces. Alec didn't like how Max was pressed to 205's side. Especially as the man who called himself 'Zane' looked exactly like one of Alec's old unit mates. X5-206 was not the best team player, preferring to undermine authority every chance he got, and usually screwing up royally if not properly supervised. He was the only transgenic from the Washington facility who had spent more time in psy-ops than Alec.

The other member of the group who he recognised was 210, or Jondy. Her clone had been killed in Kazakhstan on a mission _he_ had been in charge of. 211 had been a close friend, and he didn't really appreciate the reminder of yet another person he had lost. He waved at the group tiredly and headed for the bedroom.

"Off to bed so soon?" Max's voice rang out from the couch.

Alec turned, "Yeah, long night."

"You should stop and hang for a while."

He sighed, walking to the kitchen counter and grabbing a stool. He put it against the wall opposite the couch and sat. "Happy?"

Max frowned. "Don't look so put out, I'm trying to be nice," she gave him a lopsided smile, the irony in the statement not lost on Alec. He laughed.

"So what's so funny? Max telling you guys about the time she became the worlds worst stripper?" A wicked glint was in his eye and Max poked her tongue out. 701 and 471 – Krit and Syl – looked curiously at her.

"You holding out on us, little sister?" A smirk was playing on Syl's lips, eyes moving to Alec, an eyebrow raised.

Max rolled her eyes. "We were trying to get a mermaid out of a fishtank in a strip club. Alec screwed the whole thing up as usual."

"Hey! How was I s'posed know he was a merman?"

And so it went. Max and Alec regaling the four newcomers with stories of their adventures over the past year, stories that were far from funny at the time becoming instant classics. The atmosphere in the room was that of a group who had been friends for years, and it was then that Alec knew him and Max would be okay.


	9. My Black Eye Casts No Shadow

**A/N:** Sorry it's been so long between updates. Went on holiday for a bit and didn't take the comp. That combined with a bit of writer's block and total chaos at work has made for slow progress!

**CHAPTER 8: My Black Eye Casts no Shadow**

....................................................................................................

The black Landcruiser sat outside the entrance to Terminal City, a lone man inside. He was pointing what looked like a radar gun towards the razor wire surrounding the perimeter.

The people milling around the area deliberately avoided the sinister looking vehicle, and Otto Gottlieb was relieved. The last thing he needed was news getting back to his superiors. He flipped open his cell and dialled a number by memory.

"Logan, it's Otto. Tell your boss I've got his car working."

................................................................................................

"So how long have you been screwing my little sister?"

Alec looked up from his desk at the dark man standing in his doorway. He thought better of the smart comment on the tip of his tongue and turned back to the expense sheets he had been working on.

"Come on, dude. I just wanna know what's goin' on." There was no animosity in Krit's voice and Alec finally gave him his attention.

"It's complicated." He sighed heavily and rubbed his brow. "Max is a hard nut to crack."

"So you're not bangin' her gong?"

"No."

"Why the hell not, man. She obviously got a thing for you."

"I already told you, it's complicated. She's still holding a torch for Logan, and I'm trying real hard not to..." he paused for a moment. "You know what, I'm really not tryin' that hard."

Krit looked at him with a genuine smile. "So she wants you, you want her. Again, what is the big freaking deal?"

"She really didn't tell you?"

"Tell me _what?_"

"Max and I were breeding partners."

Krit's lips formed a large O and realisation dawned in his eyes and he nodded. "The rebellion strikes again."

"Yeah. Can you see Max ever doing something Manticore _told_ her to do?" He looked pointedly at Krit.

"Touche"

...........................................................................................

Cam lay under the old Tacoma, up to her elbows in oil and grease, she waved a hand out from the side of the truck. "Torque wrench."

There was some loud rattling and then a bang. "Ow!" Cam could see Kerr's feet shuffling around as he hopped in pain and she giggled.

"It's the thing that looks like a tobacco pipe."

"I know what a torque wrench is! It's buried under about sixteen other things." He laid down on the cold concrete, handing the tool to Cam and pulling a face. "Just because I'm not a grease monkey like you doesn't mean I don't know my way around a tool chest."

She shoved a blackened hand in his face, covering his nose and cheeks in a dark handprint and he pulled back quickly, this time banging his head on the trucks chassis.

"Ow, _fuck_."

Cam smiled a secret smile and finished tightened the bolt. Sliding out from under the engine, she sat and giggled at the other teenager, who was leaning on the hood rubbing his head vigorously. "You know, for a stealth, you really are accident prone."

"Yeah, well for a girl, you really are mannish."

She poked out her tongue and unzipped her coverall. Free from the hot cotton she pulled the elastic from her dark hair and let it fall free around her shoulders. "Come on, let's go get some food. I could eat a freakin' elephant." She tossed the suit over the tool chest and headed for the door, turning when she realised Kerr wasn't following. "You coming?" He wore a ponderous look.

"You look freakishly like Max sometimes. Not exactly, just little things, mannerisms and stuff."

"Yeah, well I can see a lot of Alec in you. I suppose we're programmed to mimic our superiors." Cam pulled open the door and held it for him, waiting for him to walk through before following.

"There goes the manly factor again." Cam smacked him in the back of the head. "Please, dear god! No more pain!"

"Well, you bring it on yourself." She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and squeezed enough to make him uncomfortable. "Besides, what kind of big sister would I be if I didn't beat the crap out of you from time to time? Someone's gotta keep you in line."

Kerr attempted to shrink away from her tight hold, but all attempts were futile. She was determined to milk her new found 'older sibling' status. "What are we going to do about Alec and Max?"

"What about them?" She nonchalantly kicked a stone in their path.

"_What about them?_ Have you been living under a rock?" He looked at her, aghast.

"We can't force them together. Max seems to be obsessed with pining after someone who's not _ever_ going to be able to completely understand her, and Alec....."

"Alec what?"

"Sometimes I think Alec's issues are even worse than Max's."

"Hey, I'm the empath here, and you're encroaching on my specialty." He frowned at her in an exaggerated manner.

"What, you've got a better observation?"

"I can extend on your theory," She looked at him expectantly. "Alec's got so many issues it's not even worth counting them. I mean, first he get's chucked in psy ops after the escape, then he starts getting seizures and ends up in the lab for a month," Cam glanced at him, surprised. "I snuck into his office and read some files," She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, as I was saying, then his mission in Kazakhstan goes sideways and two-eleven dies."

"He got chucked in the hole for that?" Kerr nodded.

"And after that for the Berrisford mission, and then his twin goes psycho and he gets his brain pulled apart for six months. My feeling is that he's trying to sabotage anything they might have 'cos he thinks he's not gonna make it to thirty."

"Empath, my ass. That's a stretch."

"Watch him. He's always trying to get into Max's pants by pissing her off."

Cam laughed. "Too true."

"So you in?" He looked at her expectantly.

"Let the manipulation begin."

................................................................................................

Mole would ordinarily have felt a sick sense of glee in being the bearer of bad news, but this evening was one of the rare occasions the feeling was of actually wanting to _be_ sick. He could hear Alec laughing in his office with one of the o'niners and hesitantly reached for the door, taking a moment to knock before entering.

"Mole, what the hell, man? Since when do you knock?" Alec looked away from Krit, an amused look twinkling in his green eyes.

"You mind if I take a seat, Alec?"

The look of mirth changed to that of concern. Mole usually barged in and took over the entire couch without so much as a greeting. He could see his leader steeling himself for bad news.

"No. You can stand while you tell me whatever crappy news it is now."

Mole sat on the office chair opposite the desk and rested his head in his hands. Rubbing his face in anxiety, he spoke. "We've gotta get out of TC, Alec."

Alec looked at the scaly transhuman dubiously. Mole hadn't been a fan of staying in the city from the start, but he wasn't usually so vocal about his opinion on the matter.

"Please tell me this is just a badly disguised attempt at manipulation."

"The mics have finally picked something up. One of White's lackeys mentioned planting charges under the city."

"You're sure they're not just trying to flush us out?"

"Gottleib confirmed it. He called Logan this morning telling us we might want to get out of Dodge. That coupled with a convo the new guy had on the phone mentioning our worrying levels of organization, and I'm pretty much certain TCs just gonna be a hole in the ground within the week."

"And you didn't tell me this earlier because...?"

"Didn't want to freak you out prematurely."

Alec nodded, rubbing his hands over his face as Mole had done earlier.

"Well, aren't you gonna say something? Some inspiring speech perhaps?"

"What the hell am I gonna tell Max?" Alec looked at Krit, arms above his head, hands resting in his hair.

"Don't look at me, dude. I just got here."

Alec pulled out his phone, punched in a few keys and flipped it shut. He looked back at Mole, "So what about the toxin containment issue?"

"Turns out our plant is not just any old government agent. He's working for White too. Guy manages to get a plant everywhere."

"So they all they care about is getting rid of us and making sure their precious apocalypse isn't interrupted? Forget the politics, baby lets just murder the entire human race?"

"Looks like it." He stood, "I'm off. Think it over for half an hour and let me know what to tell the troops." Alec nodded and Mole turned and left the room. Krit's voice rang out in the empty silence that followed.

"What just happened?"

..........................................................................................

Max stood on the roof of command looking out over the dull grey haze that hung over the city. The succinct nature of the text she had received had her more than a little concerned. Ordinarily any message she got from Alec was either a dirty joke or some gossip about one of the Jam Pony crew, this one read 'Roof 5min L1'. Why he wanted to meet on the roof to discuss a threat was beyond her.

"Hey Maxie," He stood by the door, slouched slightly. A vague air of defeat came over the rooftop.

"Alec, what's going on? Why couldn't we talk in your office?" Her hands were on her hips in an agressive stance.

"Didn't want anyone listening in." She didn't budge, waiting for him to explain himself.

"Well?" It was difficult to hide her concern and as such, it came out in a rather clipped tone.

Alec sighed and walked to the edge, leaning on the ledge he repeated what Mole had told him not five minutes earlier. Max laughed.

"Come on, it's just Mole trying to talk us into going to ground. He's making a mountain out of a mole hill."

"This is the real deal, Max. We need to get out, now." Her face fell.

"You can't be serious! This is Mole we're talking about, he never wanted to stay here in the first place!"

"See why I wanted to meet you on up here? You're going all miss-know-it-all on me. Stop yelling for a minute and think about the facts." He looked at her expectantly. The stubborn slightly caustic expression remained. He let out yet another sigh and continued, "What are we going to do? Find all the familiars and kill them before they kill us in about forty eight hours? Dismantle all the bombs we can find and hope for the best? Come on, Max. We've got one option and we've gotta take it while we still have the chance." She was again looking out over the monochrome cityscape surrounding them.

"But this is our home."

He moved to stand next to her, slipping an arm around her shoulders. "Let's look at this another way. We can all make a new start somewhere that's not cold, windy and damp. If you could live anywhere you want, where would it be." A tear slipped down her cheek and he tightened his hold on her. "Where would it be, Max?"

She wiped away the tear and took a deep breath. "Mexico." Turning to him, she managed a weak smile. "I would love to be able to tan all year round."

He laughed. "See, told you there was a bright side."

"I trust you have a plan for this situation?" She pulled away and headed for the door that lead back inside the building.

"I always have a plan."

..............................................................................................

"Alright, everyone here?" Alec looked around the small office at the occupants of his small office. There were ten people crammed in plus himself and Max, who was sitting quietly in the corner doing her best wallpaper impersonation. His eyes fell on Mole and the Lizard man nodded, indicating that all the people who he considered necessary were in the room. "Let's get started then."

He leaned on the edge of his desk and crossed his arms over his chest. "I am assuming Mole has informed you all why you are here?"

The group murmured in a way that indicated an affirmative answer. Nobody quite wanted to meet their leaders eye, and Alec had a sneaking suspicion it was because they secretly didn't want to leave the toxic mess they were calling home.

"On these sheets are ten different lists, each of you are charged with dividing each list into teams of four to six according to abilities and appearances. Each group must have at least one who can easily pass for human. You have two hours to contact each group and send them in to report to Max who will assign them a departure point and time. Any questions?"

An older X5raised her hand timidly, and Alec pointed at her. "Yes, Tay?"

"What routes are we going to be taking to get out of the city? Some of the people on this list aren't going to be suited to jumping between rooftops."

"Assign them either sewer, rooftop, vehicle or foot according to what they're going to be able to handle. If you have any groups consisting of entirely X series could you please assign these to the vehicles first. I've got Asha and Logan spreading the word about a fake rich kids party out in the sticks that you are all going to be off to so hopefully a bunch of good looking kids going through the same checkpoints isn't going to set off any alarm bells." Another raised their hand and Alec nodded at the large almost ape like man.

"What about the thermal scanners?"

"That is now hopefully a non-issue. Anyone else?" There was a lot of raised eyebrows, but no more raised hands. "Let's get to work then people."


	10. Your Red Eye Sees No Pain

**CHAPTER 9: YOUR RED EYE SEES NO PAIN**

**Mole had managed to work his way through most of his list and only six names now remained. Two were chameleon transhumans, one was a psy ops unit and there was also an X5 and two X6es. It was the dregs of the bunch, none of them quite fitting into any of the other groups, mainly because of personality clashes and Mole was a little unsure of how well this motley crew were going to take the news.**

**The three who weren't X series had taken it fine, happy to have a group of people to be on the run with instead of having to scrounge out of dumpsters for an undetermined amount of time. The X5 had come around eventually, his only beef being with the telecoercion unit. The X6es were a different story.**

"**You can't be serious, Mole. I am _not_ going on the run with Book!"**

"**Come on Cam, he's not that bad."**

"**He is so _that bad_! I've already had to spend days stuck with him in a van listening to his inane excuse for conversation and I there is no way in hell I am spending months on the run with him!" Cam stood in front of Mole a staunch glare on her features, arms crossed firmly over her chest. She looked pointedly at Kerr and he adopted a similar stance.**

"**It's not up for debate, guys. You're going with Book and you can bitch and moan all you like, but you know it's better than being stuck on your own." Mole turned and started heading for the door.**

"**We can go with Alec and Max." Kerr managed to keep the hopeful tone out of his voice.**

"**The last thing those two need are two kids trailing after them. They've already got Josh to worry about!"**

"**Please, Mole. Just ask them? If we end up with the oaf then we'll just split and go out on our own anyway." Cam was playing the blackmail card. She knew that despite his tough exterior, the lizard man had a soft spot for some of the X6es, including herself and Kerr.**

**Mole huffed as he turned the door handle. "Fine, but you owe me big time when this is all over." The two younger transgenics looked at one another grinning and Mole got that feeling that he had been played big time.**

…

* * *

**Max looked up at the sound of a mug being slammed down on the desk she was seated behind. Alec's smirking face looked back.**

"**Cream and sugar?" Max glared at him and rubbed her eyes.**

"**We've only got one group left to report in and it's the one Mole's saddled himself with." Max was holding up a piece of A4 paper with lines through all but six names. Alec plucked it out of her hands and scanned the lines. His brow creased in confusion.**

"**Why would Mole put himself with _five_ X series? He hates the pretty people."**

"**Probably trying to have as many people around who can procure him some tasty Cubans." Max smirked.**

"**To be fair, four of them are sixes. He's always been a pushover with the younger ones. I'd hate to be Julia, though. She's gonna get given assholes." He chucked softly to himself and Max knew he was imagining the insults Mole would cook up for the blonde X5.**

"**You two talkin' bout me?"**

**Alec turned around and smiled broadly at his buddy, "Just commenting on how much fun you're gonna have surrounded by the beautiful people."**

"**Yeah, about that..." Mole trailed off, obviously reluctant to explain something that he knew he was going to have to get out eventually. Max looked behind him, Julia and two of the X6es were behind him.**

"**Where's Cam and Kerr?" She asked.**

**Mole looked at his shoes and mumbled something.**

"**I'm sorry, Mole. That sounded like you said they didn't want to go with the team you assigned them." Alec tapped his foot on the floor rhythmically and crossed his arms. It was becoming a common stance.**

"**I did."**

"**And why can't they go in your team?"**

"**Apparently they hate these two." He jerked his head towards the two X6es. "And before you ask, I tried to fit them into other groups, but they just clash with too many people. Most of them hate Kerr's ability to read people and they refuse to be split up." His hands were palm up on either side of his shoulders in a gesture of hopelessness. "They could go with you two." He tried to make it sound like his idea.**

"**That what they suggested is it?" Max's voice had more than a hint of irony. Mole's face dropped. Not only had he been manipulated by two sixteen-year-olds, but Max _knew_ he had been manipulated by two sixteen-year-olds.**

"**There's not much we can do about it now, everyone else already has their assignments." The tinge of frustration in Alec's voice was evident, but Max could also see a twinkle of mischief in his eye. He looked at the other sheet in his hands, the one containing deployment points and times. "You guys get the boat. You're out in two hours. Good thing Mork and Mindy aren't going with you, it would have been a tight squeeze."**

**The boat he was referring to was an old fibreglass fishing boat with a four berth cabin and a hundred and fifty horsepower Evinrude outboard motor. They had found it parked up in one of the few residential garages in the area collecting dust and after a hose down and scrub it looked like it had just rolled off the assembly line.**

"**Thanks for that, Max. Save the best for last and all that." Mole looked surprisingly pleased with his means of transport. Max had expected the desert unit to be pissed with the prospect of hours or possibly days spent out in the cold, damp and salty Pacific. She eyed him up suspiciously.**

"**Since when do you look forward to aquatic exercises?"**

"**Means I can be in Arizona in a week." He puffed on his cigar in a smug manner and grinned at his small crew. "Vegas, baby."**

**Max screwed up her nose. Vegas was one of the few places in the country that had managed to recover almost fully from the pulse. Cash being king, once the power was back on they had barely missed a beat. The quick recovery had come at a price though. It was even more filled with mobsters than before. "Good luck with that."**

"**Okay, enough chitchat. You lot got the number memorized?" Alec was getting impatient. He wanted to go and find the two youngsters who had put a spanner in the works.**

"**We're transgenics, Sir. What do you think?" Julia had been in his unit when he had been CO and had never quite fallen out of the habit of calling him 'Sir'. She had however, picked up an attitude they never taught in CVU. Alec laughed, nodding in acknowledgment. It had been a stupid question.**

"**Get your shit together and get ready to move out. _One bag each_ please. Don't need to be lugging around half of Seattle." Mole and his crew left through the same door they came, team leader shouting orders all the way. Alec turned to Max, "Come on, let's go and get our own shit together."**

**She looked at him a little bewildered. "We're not due to leave for another fourteen hours."**

"**Yeah, but we need to make a pit stop first. Go visit our new recruits."**

…

* * *

**Mole quietly sat on his bed in the room he shared with another desert unit, staring at the colorful sheets hung from the ceiling. Although not part of the usual crew he hung out with in command, Bridge was a close friend. They had trained together all their lives and as two of the very few of their kind left, had decided to band together when they had escaped Manticore.**

**And now they were going to have to split up. Mole knew Alec hadn't realized it was a big deal when he made the lists, as they weren't on file as being best friends. Mainly because they weren't best friends, just used to relying on each other. Bridge calmed him down when he got aggro, poured him a bourbon when he had a long day and _always_ remembered where the secret cigar stash was hidden when Mole had long forgotten.**

**When he thought about it, she was basically his wife. Just without the fun bits.**

**Mole growled in frustration and pulled a small pack out from under the desk the mattress was lying on. He quickly moved around the room, collecting only the essentials and was heading for the door when it opened.**

**Bridge walked through, her light taupe head slightly ducked as she walked under the low basement doorframe.**

"**Hey."**

**She looked up at the voice and smiled sadly. "So I guess this is it. We're finally gonna get rid of each other."**

"**I didn't know we were on different lists, Bridge. I'm sorry."**

"**Hey, not your fault. It's not like you're one of Alec's best friends or anything. He would never shuffle some lists for someone as _lowly_ as you." She didn't bother to hide the bitterness in her tone and Mole added guilt to the sadness.**

"**I'm not gonna ask for special treatment just because I might miss my best friend, Bridge. We'll all be back together again soon anyway."**

**Bridge hung her head, ashamed of her outburst. "I'm sorry. It's just we've always been there to watch each others backs."**

**Mole stepped forward and enveloped her in a tight hug. "Meet me in Arizona?"**

"**You bet, Moldy."**

…

* * *

"**You two are a right pair, you know that?"**

**Alec was greeted by slightly guilty looks from the two young transgenics. They had chosen to remain silent, which was fine with him.**

"**I can't believe you would manipulate Mole like that! And now you're going to have to hang around with us until everyone else has made it out safely, do you have any idea how much danger you're going to be in?"**

"**But Alec-"**

"**Save it, Kerr. You two are sticking with Max and I until we leave, I don't want you out of my sight. Got knows what shit you're gonna get up to otherwise."**

"**When are we leaving?" This time it was Cam who had the guts – or possibly stupidity – to speak up.**

"**I will leave you to ponder that while you are stuck trailing around after us for an undetermined period of time. Now shut up and follow." He spun on his heel and Max followed. The two youngsters silently fell into step behind them sharing a meaningful look. Even if they had been flying by the seat of their pants, the plan had worked.**

"**What exactly do you have to do? I mean, everyone already has their assignments, some have already started leaving." Confusion was evident in Cam's voice. She had been looking forward to spending the next few hours conspiring with Kerr.**

"**Surveillance. Most of the crew are going to be heading out over the next couple hours, so it's gonna be up to us." Max opened the main door to command and Cam realized she was going to be sitting in a quiet room, just not planning manipulation tactics. Command was almost empty.**

**Max walked towards the main television where a report was playing on the local news about Senator McKinley. She sat in complete silence with her eyes fixed to the screen.**

"**What's up with her?"**

"**She's fine, Kerr. Just let her watch the TV, huh?"**

"**Alec?"**

"**_Yes_?"**

"**I know it's not really something me and him need to know, but _why_ are we leaving Terminal City?"**

**Alec Sighed. He knew that questions were going to be asked sooner or later, but he wasn't quite prepared to answer them now. He looked at Max for help, but she was still glued to the television.**

"**You know about what Agent White is, yeah?" Kerr and Cam nodded. "Well the Conclave has reportedly decided to blow us up. They have been slowly sneaking bombs under the city ever since we started using this place as a hideout, and now they are prepared to risk contaminating all of Seattle and the political firestorm just to get rid of us."**

"**But I thought White worked for the government, how is he going to get that past his superiors who _aren't _part of a crazed cult?" Confusion was rife on Cam's face.**

"**I don't think White's crew really answers to anyone. They are pretty much a law unto themselves, and the ordinaries that work for him are so terrified they don't question a thing."**

"**But how did you find out?"**

"**One of them questioned the authority and went informant. That combined with some whispers Logan had been hearing and we thought we'd better not take it as a rumor."**

"**So why aren't we just dismantling the charges?"**

"**There's hundreds under us. We'd never get them all, besides, now that they've started to attack it's not going to stop. We're better off just getting out while we can." Alec's voice held the distinct air of defeat and he rubbed a hand over his brow.**

**There was a loud clatter from the direction of the back door and all eyes in the room turned to a distraught looking Joshua, his arms laden with as many paintings as he could carry. Alec smiled sadly, amused by the image of the big guy struggling with such an awkward load, but understanding why he wouldn't want to have to leave behind his pride and joy. He lumbered over to where Alec was sitting with the two youngsters and put down the paintings.**

"**Joshua not want to leave behind paintings." A gentle whine escaped and Alec felt even worse than before. He was a sucker for that whine.**

"**You can take _one_ Josh, but only one."**

"**Joshua take this one." He picked up one of the larger works and forcefully shoved it at Alec who gingerly took the painting and gave Joshua a dubious look.**

"**You sure? You don't want to think about it for a few minutes?"**

"**Joshua sure."**

"**Okay then." Alec handed the painting to Cam, "Go put this lot in the Tacoma. There's a pile of stuff over there that needs to go in the truck as well." He waved towards his office where there were several backpacks, a first aid kit, and a box of alcohol.**

"**What about Joshua?"**

**Alec turned to a confused Cam, "What about him?"**

"**If we're driving out, how's he gonna pass for human?" She shot the dog man an apologetic look.**

"**You'll see." He waved the two constant companions to the door and turned back towards Max, who was still transfixed by the gigantic television. Sighing gently, he grabbed a chair and walked over to her, placing the chair down close enough to put his arm around her shoulders. "Just think of Mexico, Maxie."**

"**They'd only just got here." He knew he was talking about her so called family.**

"**We'll regroup, Max. You just have to be patient. Besides, you've still got Josh." He lifted one hand slightly and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. She shivered a little and turned to face him, her nose dangerously close to brushing his.**

"**What about you?"**

…

* * *

**Kerr stood silently at the door that lead to the garage, holding his hand out behind him to stop Cam from blustering into command and ruining the moment. She opened her mouth to exclaim loudly how rude he was being, but Kerr lifted his finger to his lips and pointed. Cam quickly closed her mouth when she saw the intimate moment in front of the plasma.**

**Kerr had never seen their steadfast leaders let their guard down, but there was a first time for everything. Max was looking at Alec with a strange kind of desperation usually reserved for a dying lover and their faces were dangerously close. Kerr almost thought that they might not need to nudge the older transgenics toward one another after all when Cam prodded him in the back and loudly entered the room, letting the door slam against the wall. The googley eyed couple turned back to the screen.**

"**I can't _believe_ you're gonna put Josh in a gigantic cooler!" Cam did not sound happy and Kerr prodded her hard in the back. He was kind of glad the canine was sacrificing his comfort so they could get out of town quickly, Cam however, was indignant.**

"**It's that or trudging through the sewers for six hours, Cam. I don't know about you, but I have spent enough time in those stinky damp rat infested tunnels for a lifetime." Max spoke to the two friends for the first time that afternoon. She slowly stood from her chair and turned towards them, tired and defeated, she continued. "Think of it this way – once we're out of the city limits you can all have a nice nap. I know I'm going to." She didn't sit back down, instead walking to the end of the room and pouring two cups of coffee. She then went back to her seat, handing one cup to Alec.**

**Kerr looked at Cam and shrugged. Looked like it was going to be a long night.**

"**And don't even think about finishing off that coffee! You can go hang in Alec's office."**

"**Come on, let's go play scrabble." Kerr felt his arm being pulled towards the office door and followed. Cam was _so_ getting it for interrupting their little moment.**


	11. Your Slaps Don't Stick

**A/N:** I know it's been aaaages, but I've been kinda busy (aren't we all?). And suffering from a lack of motivation (started watching Supernatural and spend all my evenings watching that in other words, lol.) Hopefully you all enjoy this chapter, It's kind of a transition chapter so not much happens, apart from some snarky conversations, a hot time wasting scene, and a snippet of our favorite doggie boy.

So without further ado.......

**CHAPTER 10: YOUR SLAPS DON'T STICK**

"Methodology is _not_ a word."

"It is _so_ a word. It's in the dictionary and everything!"

"Sorry, but it's not a word if you can say _the method_ and still be saying the same thing _without _sounding like a dickwad. And I resent the fact that you set that up four moves ago and somehow managed to pull out the letters for 'ology'." Cam glared menacingly at Kerr, she was determined to make him back down. "What you just did is tantamount to card counting with letter tiles."

"There's no rule against it. Not my fault you got shitty letters." He poked his tongue out and reached into the little green bag.

Cam sighed and continued shuffling her letters around on the tile rest, finally settling on the letters C-O-N-J-U with a triumphant "_Ha_!" and placed them next to 'gate' which had been sitting on the board all alone in the far right column. She quickly reached back into the tile bag pulling out the last three letters, "Fifty-seven points please. Suck on that triple word score!"

Two minutes later the game had degenerated to the obligatory 'to' and 'go' and the conversation had degraded to heckling.

"_Go_? Your vocabulary skills are worse than a newborn."

"What, and _tan_ is such a stunning work of literary genius?"

"It's fifty percent longer than _go. _Oh by the way......_I win._" Kerr crossed off the last score on the bottom of the scorecard and replaced it with three hundred and four.

"Not so fast mister smarty-pants, I still have two letters left."

"Oh yeah. Like you can really score twelve points with two letters on your rack." He made a silly face and Cam grinned evilly.

"I will use your _go_ and add a _y _to the left and a _t _to the right. Shame you left that _z _and _e _wide open for my use." She sat back against the base of the couch, casual satisfaction appearing to be the winners way for the day.

"_Zygote_? On the last two letters? Are you freakin' kidding me?!" The graceful winner gave way to a beast.

"Looooseeerr! Loser, loser, looooooseeer!" She jumped to her feet and danced around with her finger and thumb against her forehead. Looking like the pied piper on her toes she continued dancing until she reached the far side of the room and pranced right out the door. She stopped briefly to peer back around the doorjamb for a parting shot.

"You Loooo_ooost_." And like that she was gone.

* * *

Their coffee had long gone cold. Alec took a sip and grimaced, the mouthful had been mainly the sediment from the bottom of the mug.

"So waiting's fun then, huh?"

Max turned her head and took a sip of her own brown sludge. She then turned back to the monitor.

"_Ooookay_, so we're back to miss'I can't be bothered giving you the time of day but do you mind hanging around waiting for me until five o'clock?' Whatever" He stood abruptly and walked over to the small kitchenette, draining the last dregs out of the pot and filling the rest of the mug with hot water. He heard her stand quietly, moving towards him and he remained still, facing the slightly grotty soft porn calendar above the sink.

He forced himself to remain still when he felt her sidle up to his back, her hands reaching around him to rest on either side of the counter.

"Actually, would you mind waiting until six? I have a meeting with the chief of police." Her cheeky retort was almost enough to break his prickly demeanor, but not quite. He stayed still, only moving his arms to add sugar and powdered creamer to his drink. She moved closer, pressing her body to his back and standing on tip-toes, her breath hot against his neck.

He took a sip of slightly less sludgy brown gunk.

She licked his neck.

He took another sip.

The door banged open and a victorious sixteen year old bounced into the room, an L shape formed by her thumb and forefinger plastered on her forehead.

Alec felt Max press her forehead to his back and let out a breath. She wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed him briefly before turning towards the younger girl. Alec let out an even bigger breath and took another sip of coffee.

He largely ignored the chit chat going on on the other side of the room, something about dumb boys and boxes. All he was bothered with was cooling down a couple of degrees.

"Max, we gotta go find Josh." He dumped the mug in the sink not bothering to rinse it. It wasn't like he was going to be needing it in the morning anyway.

"Why? We've still got twelve hours."

"I don't want him getting himself into any mischief between now and then. Besides, wasn't he supposed to be hanging around here anyway? What happened to him?" A worried expression flashed in Max's eyes and she nodded.

"Okay, I'll go find him. You stay here and watch the cameras." The sly bitch was messing with him.

"Nah, I'm sure we can trust Cam here to watch them. Kerr not so much but she should be fine." He looked at her pointedly.

"Why are you so _desperate _to come with me? Getting a bit antsy stuck in the same room for hours on end?" She smirked slightly and he glared.

He headed toward the door to the garage and snagged her arm as he went. She shrugged his hand off, but continued to follow calling out to Cam to text her if anything went south.

The door slammed loudly and the noise echoed around the nearly empty building. Alec continued walking towards the large roller doors at the far end of the garage, but Max had stopped mid stride.

"Someone's all talk no play." He turned on his heel and glared at her, his intense gaze connecting with her own. "What, kitty cat gone all skittish all of a sudden?"

He walked back toward her briskly, not bothering to add any extra swagger to his standard soldier stride, and stopped about a foot in front of her. Nose to nose for the second time in a night, This time, he was determined not to be interrupted.

"You've been playing with me all night, Max. What's the deal?" His voice came out gravelly and frustrated and he glared down at her, hoping to make her either come to her senses or get it over with already.

She just smirked and prodded him in the chest.

"Max, come on. Two hours ago you were all upset about your family and leaving Seattle and now you're acting like the queen of all teases." A flash of panic crossed her eyes, but it was quickly overtaken my the Manticore mask.

"So I might be a _little bit_ in heat. No biggie." She shrugged and slid her finger from her chest up to his chin. His eyes went wide.

"_No biggie?_ We're about to do a runner and you being in heat is _no biggie? _I need to find you a cold shower." He turned and ran a hand roughly through his hair. There was a hose over in the far corner of the garage, that would do.

"No, seriously. It's _okay_. I don't go all primal any more. They gave me some kind of treatment while I was back in Manticore. Some sort of experimental gene therapy drug that makes the symptoms less severe. All that happens now is like a dialled down version of old fashioned 'Maxie wants to fuck anything in pants'. Now it's more like 'Maxie really wants to fuck Alec, but knows she's not allowed to.'" She slapped her hand over her mouth and her eyes widened. "Oops."

He raised an eyebrow. "Looks like _Maxie_ also doesn't know how to keep her mouth shut."

"Come on, Alec. Just forget this ever happened and lets go find Joshua?" She started in the direction Alec had been heading earlier, but he was too fast and pressed her up against the Tacoma.

"Can I just do one thing?" His lips were tickling her ear and his hands had her wrists pinned to the windows.

"Depends, does it involve a hose down?" She rasped.

"You might need one afterwards."

"Sounds fun, wheres the sign up sheet?"

He chuckled, letting his tongue slip out to tickle her earlobe. "I'm not sure if I can be bothered with try outs, shall we just say you got the lead and go from there?" His voice was unintentionally low and needy and he almost ducked away, tease her like she had done to him, but he was too slow. Her head had moved to the side and her lips were already pressing against his, her mouth open slightly nipping at his lips. She pressed her forehead against his and murmured against his mouth.

"Just don't expect me to repeat this performance any time soon."

He lifted her butt high enough for her to wrap her legs around his waist and pressed her hard against the side of the car. "I'll be happy with once every three months."

"Well it must be your lucky day," she paused and he cocked his head to the side in curiosity. "Seems to be happening almost monthly at the moment. Almost like I'm a _real_ girl."

She opened her mouth and rubbed her nose against his, letting her bottom lip brush against his own and it was all he could take. He took her lip into his mouth, sucking on it almost roughly before lifting his hands to her cheeks, one continuing up to twist in her hair. It was a rough kiss, not at all romantic. His own desperation causing him to ignore the fact that she was pressed up against the hard metal and glass of an SUV, not that she appeared to care. Her own hands were twisting in the hair at the nape of his neck and her tongue darted into his mouth before retreating back to where it came from. Even in the heat of the moment she was still a tease.

He moved his hands to the zipper of her jacket and jerked it down, the metal protesting at the force and she let go of his hair long enough to shrug the leather off. He went back to focusing solely on her mouth but Max had other ideas. His shirt was gone before he even had time to realize she had worked her hands under the hem and hers had gone the same way moments after. More runes marred the soft skin of her torso and Alec reached into his back pocket.

"Those are incredibly sexy, you know." His forehead was resting on the window of the SUV, his back arched far enough to keep away from direct body contact.

"What?" Her eyes were closed and she was breathing heavily, head titled towards the ceiling. She lazily opened one eyelid when she felt the air around her cheek move and groaned at what Alec was dangling beside her head. "More? Seriously?"

He chuckled wryly and shook his head. "You know, if I didn't know better I would think old Sandeman was trying to stop us from hooking up." He moved away from her and turned on the camera, crouching down he began snapping shots of the new markings.

"Wait, stop!" She grabbed his neck roughly and shoved his head to the side.

"Max, what the hell?"

She snatched the camera from his hand and took a photo of his neck, slightly to the side of his barcode. He snatched it right back after a few moments and replayed the images on the screen.

"Huh...."

"I thought it was just your barcode at first but then I noticed it was fading fast. See, if you look at the first image it's much clearer than the last two." She clicked a button on the camera and the image faded.

"Are you sure it's not just the light in here?" She looked at his neck again and shook her head.

"It's totally disappeared now, I hope that's the only one. If there were others they will be long gone," She frowned and looked down. "Uh, Alec?"

"Hmmm?" He was still clicking buttons on the camera, looking through the photos.

"_Alec,_" her voice was slightly panicked and he looked up from the screen. She was peering down at her stomach, a look of dread marring her features. Alec looked down to the patch of skin in question and jumped back surprise. "Quick, start filming it!"

The runes he had captured earlier had begun to move across her abdomen forming a pattern just above her navel, more appearing as fast as the others moved. In just a few moments the collection of images finished their strange dance and completed an image around six inches square between her breasts and stomach.

"It looks like a message...." Alec stopped filming and started snapping photos. "Some of these I recognize but a lot are ones we haven't come across yet. Quick, turn around."

Max turned and peered over her shoulder, trying to get a good look at whatever Alec was snapping away at. "More?"

"It's almost like they're two pages from a book." He moved her hair over her shoulder. "Take your pants off, there might be more."

She hesitated.

"Come on, it's not like it's nothing I haven't seen before," he huffed.

"But I'm wearing see through underwear..." She reddened.

"I promise I won't look unless totally unavoidable."

She reached for the zipper of her pants and hesitated again.

"Come on Max, we haven't got all day here. Looks like these things aren't gonna hang around for long." She took in a deep breath and shoved the denims to the ground, kicking her shoes and socks with them. Alec began inspecting her legs for any sign of the black marks, but Max chose to stare back at the roof, holding her breath.

"Anything?"

"Not yet, turn around." She turned to face the car.

"Bingo," he muttered.

"What?" She was peering back over her shoulder again, long hair brushing the small of her back. Alec took in a sharp breath.

"Two more _pages_." The camera flashed a few more times and he put it back into the little pouch. Max quickly pulled her jeans and top back on.

"Lemme see." She tried to grab the camera from his grasp but he held it away.

"You know that the files can go all screwy if you fiddle with it too much."

She growled. "But you were looking through them _heaps_ before! Thats not fair!"

"But I know about computers. I know not to flick through them too quickly or piss about trying to adjust the image. You're hopeless. Like the kiss of death to file stability." He shoved the pouch back into his pocket. He started heading for the large doors at the end of the building. "Come on, lets go find Josh."

"But......" He knew she was still standing where he left her, bewildered.

"Come on," he didn't look back, instead swinging his arm to emphasize his words.

"What....that's it?"

He laughed.

"Prick." With a groan of frustration she stomped after him.

* * *

"Aaah Mister Cale, what brings you to this loathsome cesspool of a workplace? Surely not the scintillating company of the employees?"

Logan smiled at the man behind the counter and chuckled lightly. "Actually, I'm here to see you, Normal. You got a few minutes?"

"Anything to get a moment away from the _inane conversation these reprobates_ _seem to perpetuate._" He raised his voice at the lass part and Logan heard snickers from a few of the staff.

"Are Cindy and Sketchy around?"

"Are you kidding? Those two seem to spend most of their time on their lunch breaks, haven't seen them on an actual _run _for over three days," he looked up at the mezzanine floor used for meal breaks and gestured for the two friends to join them. Cindy waved at Logan and stood quickly, dragging the scruffier messenger with her.

"Logan! You come bringin' the good word or the bad juju?" Cindy hugged him tightly and then took his arm, heading for Normal's office.

"Not so fast missy-miss! Only one person allowed in that room and it sure isn't you!"

"Come _on_ Normal. We both know you're only grandstanding in front of the other staff," Cindy rolled her eyes and shoved open the door marked _management only_. Sitting down with a flop she looked expectantly at Logan. "So spill, Log-boy. What's the dealio with my boos?"

Logan sat gingerly on the edge of the desk and waited for Normal and Sketchy to make themselves comfortable. He took a breath and began to tell them the story.

* * *

"_Joshua!"_

"I don't think he's here, Max. The whole street seems pretty deserted." Alec opened the door to Joshua's studio and peered around the first room, nothing had changed except for the lack of a few paintings. Max's ears pricked up at the creak of bed springs from the next room.

"Josh, you in there buddy?" Max didn't wait for the reply to Alec's call and went through to the bedroom. She laughed.

"There's no point in doing that you know, it probably won't be here tomorrow." She smiled softly, Joshua looked up at her from his position on the bed with a grin.

"Joshua want to leave house tidy."

"Dude, you really want to waste your time doing that?" Alec was looking around the room in amazement. Instead of artworks stacked everywhere and random pieces of clothing draped over the frames the walls were free of almost any clutter. Cobwebs had been removed from the corners and the ceiling had been scrubbed clean. The big guy was currently cleaning his bedside table with a dry cloth and polish.

"Joshua decide cleaning better than sitting doing nothing." He stood and patted the shorter man on the head and reached under the bed for his duffel bag. "Joshua ready to go now." He picked up the polish and cloth and lumbered out of the building, throwing the rag to the side as he walked through the door.

"Nice, dude," Alec chuckled.

"Joshua not start on Lander street. Take too long." A goofy grin lit up his face and Max smiled.


End file.
